KALAHEO — In his 30 years living in Kalaheo, Bruce Savage said he has never heard anything like what he heard late Tuesday night. The “loud roar” around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday lasted around two minutes and visions of a North
KALAHEO — In his 30 years living in Kalaheo, Bruce Savage said he has never heard anything like what he heard late Tuesday night.
The “loud roar” around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday lasted around two minutes and visions of a North Korea missile attack were going through his head, he said.
Savage called the Kaua‘i Police Department Waimea substation Wednesday morning and an officer there didn’t recall hearing anything.
Tom Clements, spokesman for the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility at Barking Sands, said there was no aircraft activity at the base after dark Tuesday. He lives in Kalaheo and said he heard what he is pretty sure was a jet flying overhead late Tuesday night.
There was one complaint call made to the Federal Aviation Administration Honolulu Flight Standards District Office, said FAA spokesperson Ian Gregor.
But since the Lihu‘e Airport FAA tower isn’t open at that time, and nobody reported tail numbers, identifying marks or similar information that could be used to identify the aircraft, there isn’t anything the FAA can do, he said.
A Kalaheo resident reported that it was overcast when the jet flew overhead.
Commercial jets are supposed to fly at least 1,000 feet above the nearest obstacle but, again, without anyone on the ground supplying identifying marks, the FAA has no idea where the plane came from, where it was going, and whether it was flying too low, Gregor said.
“An annoying flight isn’t necessarily an illegal flight,” Gregor said.
“A flight can be equally annoying and legal,” he said, adding that if people on the ground can get information like tail numbers, airplane colors, multiple witnesses, photos or video, the FAA can then investigate.
There were no calls made to the on-island tour helicopter help line.
Normally, the latest departures from Lihu‘e Airport are 10:50 p.m. (Hawaiian Airlines and US Airways), and 10:30 p.m. (Alaska Airlines), said a visitor-information worker at Lihu‘e Airport.
