Taken to Wilcox Memorial Hospital Kaua`i County Fire Department rescue personnel brought an injured 170-pound female hiker safely out of the Napali Coast area this morning after another rescue effort Sunday failed when a helicopter crash-landed. Fire Capt. Bob Kaden
Taken to Wilcox Memorial Hospital
Kaua`i County Fire Department rescue personnel brought an injured 170-pound female hiker safely out of the Napali Coast area this morning after another rescue effort Sunday failed when a helicopter crash-landed.
Fire Capt. Bob Kaden said the injured woman was suffering from either a severely strained or broken ankle. She was rescued at first light and taken to Wilcox Memorial Hospital for treatment.
That’s the same hospital where a three-person Fire Department rescue crew and a helicopter pilot went yesterday after their helicopter made a forced landing at Hanalei Bay.
Kaden said all four people aboard the helicopter were treated and released from Wilcox.
The helicopter, operating under a contract with the Fire Department, lost power while en route to help the injured hiker in Hanakoa Valley.
A Coast Guard helicopter picked up the four people involved in the downed helicopter and dropped them off at Princeville Airport. Darkness set in before another attempted rescue of the woman could be mounted.
Kaden said the Fire Department was informed of the hiking accident Sunday afternoon when some of her companions hiked out and use a beach emergency phone to call 9-1-1.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
