1 dead, 2 missing after tourist helicopter crashes off Hawaiian island of Kauai

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1 dead, 2 missing after tourist helicopter crashes off Hawaiian island of Kauai

2024-07-13 07:05 Last Updated At：07:10

HONOLULU (AP) — A tour company helicopter crashed off the Hawaiian island of Kauai, police said, killing one person and leaving two missing in the latest in a series of crashes to plague the industry in recent years.

A hiker on the Kalalau trail reported seeing the helicopter crash into the water about a quarter of a mile (0.4 kilometers) off the Na Pali Coast on Thursday and called the fire department around 1:40 p.m., Kauai officials said in a statement.

The Robinson R44 helicopter was part of Ali’i Kauai Air Tours & Charters, authorities said.

The company bills itself as the only Hawaiian-family-owned and -operated air tour company on Kauai, and its website said it has more than three decades of flying experience. It offers private tours by plane or helicopter.

Kauai lifeguards on personal watercraft recovered one person's body from the water Thursday. The U.S. Coast Guard continued searching Friday for the two people in the water.

Their identities were not immediately released.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. Once the aircraft is recovered, an NTSB investigator will begin documenting the scene and examining the aircraft, the agency said Friday. The aircraft will then be recovered to a secure facility for further evaluation.

The Federal Aviation Administration last year established a new process for air tour operators in Hawaii to be approved to fly at lower altitudes following other fatal crashes.

Tour operators can fly at 1,500 feet (460 meters) unless they have authorization to go lower. The FAA said it would review each operator’s safety plan before issuing permission.

The move came after three deadly crashes in 2019, including one that killed a pilot and six passengers on the Na Pali Coast. The NTSB blamed the crash on the pilot’s decision to continue flying in bad weather.

Three people died when a tour helicopter crashed in a Honolulu suburb, and 11 people were killed when their skydiving plane went down after takeoff on Oahu’s North Shore. Federal investigators blamed that crash on the pilot’s aggressive takeoff.

Another helicopter crashed into a remote Big Island lava field during a sunset tour in June 2022, injuring the six people on board.

Ladd Sanger, a Texas-based aviation attorney and helicopter pilot, has handled air tour crash litigation in Hawaii and has flown a helicopter over Kauai.

The latest crash shows it's not prudent to be flying single-engine helicopters over Hawaii, including off Kauai's rugged coastline, he said.

“If there is an engine problem on Kauai, it is very likely going to be a terrible outcome,” he said. “It is a really rough island and there are so few places to land a helicopter.”

A Robinson R44 is also more susceptible to Hawaii's often-changing climates, he said.

“Kauai is gorgeous, and there is no way to see the beauty of Kauai, but from a helicopter,” he said. “But it needs to be the right helicopter.”

There aren't many Hawaii tour companies operating twin-engine turbine helicopters because they're more expensive, Sanger said.

“Our hearts go out to the families and friends of those affected,” David Smith, president and CEO of Robinson Helicopter Company, said in a statement. “Safety is our highest priority, and we are cooperating fully with all investigating authorities to understand the circumstances surrounding this event.”

Robinson helicopters, including the R44 model, “have a proven track record of safe operation across diverse and challenging environments, from the mountainous terrain of Switzerland to the tropical climate of Hawaii,” the company said. “Robinson helicopters have been operating safely in Hawaii since the 1980s, with some operators flying up to 16,000 flight hours a year without incident.”

While the federal government generally controls air safety measures, Hawaii lawmakers have tried to indirectly make helicopter tours safer, said state Rep. Nadine Nakamura, whose Kauai district includes the Na Pali Coast.

But a bill last session attempting to increase aircraft liability insurance didn't make it to the governor's desk, she said.

She noted that past crashes have been due to a variety of issues including weather and mechanical problems.

“And that's what visitors have to weigh — that there have been crashes in the past,” she said. “People have to balance their desire to see remote and exotic places from a vantage point that is quite stunning to the risks involved.”

Thiessen reported from Anchorage, Alaska.

Swollen rivers flood towns in US South after dayslong deluge of rain

2025-04-07 21:40 Last Updated At：21:51

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Days of unrelenting heavy rain and storms that killed at least 18 people worsened flooding as some rivers rose to near-record levels and inundated towns across an already saturated U.S. South and parts of the Midwest.

Cities ordered evacuations and rescue crews in inflatable boats checked on residents in Kentucky and Tennessee, while utilities shut off power and gas in a region stretching from Texas to Ohio.

“I think everybody was shocked at how quick (the river) actually did come up,” said salon owner Jessica Tuggle, who was watching Monday as murky brown water approached her business in Frankfort, Kentucky, the state capital along the swollen Kentucky River.

She said that as each new wave of rain arrived over the weekend, anxious residents hoped for a reprieve so they could just figure out how bad things would get and how to prepare. She and friends packed up everything she could haul out of her salon, including styling chairs, hair products and electronics, and they took it all to a nearby tap house up the hill.

“Everybody was just ‘stop raining, stop raining’ so we could get an idea of what the worst situation would be,” she said.

Officials diverted traffic and turned off utilities to businesses in the city as the river was expected to approach a record crest on Monday.

For many, there was a sense of dread that the worst was still to come.

“As long as I’ve been alive — and I’m 52 — this is the worst I’ve ever seen it,” said Wendy Quire, the general manager at the Brown Barrel restaurant downtown.

“The rain just won’t stop,” Quire said Sunday. “It’s been nonstop for days and days.”

The 18 reported deaths since the storms began on Wednesday included 10 in Tennessee. A 9-year-old boy in Kentucky was caught up in floodwaters while walking to catch his school bus. A 5-year-old boy in Arkansas died after a tree fell on his family’s home, police said. A 16-year-old volunteer Missouri firefighter died in a crash while seeking to rescue people caught in the storm.

The National Weather Service warned Sunday that dozens of locations in multiple states were expected to reach a “major flood stage,” with extensive flooding of structures, roads, bridges and other critical infrastructure possible.

In north-central Kentucky, emergency officials ordered a mandatory evacuation for Falmouth and Butler, towns near the bend of the rising Licking River. Thirty years ago, the river reached a record 50 feet (15 meters), resulting in five deaths and 1,000 homes destroyed.

The storms come after the Trump administration cut jobs at NWS forecast offices, leaving half of them with vacancy rates of about 20%, or double the level of a decade ago.

Forecasters attributed the violent weather to warm temperatures, an unstable atmosphere, strong winds and abundant moisture streaming from the Gulf.

The NWS said 5.06 inches (nearly 13 centimeters) of rain fell Saturday in Jonesboro, Arkansas — making it the wettest day ever recorded in April in the city. Memphis, Tennessee, received 14 inches (35 centimeters) of rain from Wednesday to Sunday, the NWS said.

Rives, a northwestern Tennessee town of about 200 people, was almost entirely underwater after the Obion River overflowed.

Domanic Scott went to check on his father in Rives after not hearing from him in a house where water reached the doorstep.

“It’s the first house we’ve ever paid off. The insurance companies around here won’t give flood insurance to anyone who lives in Rives because we’re too close to the river and the levees. So if we lose it, we’re kind of screwed without a house,” Scott said.

In Dyersburg, Tennessee, dozens of people arrived over the weekend at a storm shelter near a public school clutching blankets, pillows and other necessities. Just days earlier the city was hit by a tornado that caused millions of dollars in damage.

For some, grabbing the essentials also meant taking a closer look at the liquor cabinet.

In Frankfort, with water rising up to his window sills, resident Bill Jones fled his home in a boat, which he loaded with several boxes of bottles of bourbon.

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Anthony Izaguirre in New York; Kimberlee Kruesi, in Nashville; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; Adrian Sainz in Memphis; Tennessee; Sarah Raza in Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Obed Lamy in Rives, Tennessee; and Sophia Tareen in Chicago.