Searchers in Hawaii have found the wreckage of a missing tour helicopter, and the bodies of six of the seven people onboard.
The seventh person is also presumed to be dead.
“There are no indications of survivors,” Kauai Fire Department Battalion Chief Sol Kanoho said at a news conference Friday after the crash site was located, according to Hawaii News Now.
The chopper crashed on its way back from a tour of Kauai's rugged Na Pali Coast, famous for its towering cliffs and waterfalls and a popular destination for helicopter tours.
The wreckage was discovered almost 24 hours after the helicopter was reported missing on Thursday evening, after it failed to return to its home base on time.
The region's unpredictable weather, including fog, rain, choppy seas and winds, posed a challenge for search and recovery efforts.
“You can have very low ceilings. You can have fog and cloud banks that move in very quickly," Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources spokesman Dan Dennison, who has spent years visiting and photographing the area, told The Associated Press. "You can have heavy rain and strong winds that make flying difficult if not impossible at times.”
Helicopter tour operators on Kauai face unique challenges because of the weather and topography, according to Ladd Sanger, a Texas-based aviation attorney and helicopter pilot who has handled several crash cases involving similar helicopters in Hawaii. Because of that, the weather can vary from one area to the next and can change quickly.
Kauai “has microclimates, so the weather at the airport is going to be different than up at the crash location,” Sanger told the AP. “Those microclimates can come on very quickly and dissipate quickly too, so the weather reporting is difficult.”
The wreckage was located on top of a mountain, along a route regularly flown by helicopter tour pilots.
“Kauai is incredibly unforgiving terrain,” Sanger said. “If you lose the engine there’s just really no place to land on the tour route that they were flying.”
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the crash.
The Coast Guard deployed an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter and the cutter William Hart to the search Thursday night. More assets were added Friday morning, including a Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules airplane and a 45-foot response boat. A U.S. Navy helicopter was also set to join the effort.
The Kauai Fire Department coordinated ground searches of the shoreline and inland canyon searches, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported. Helicopters from the National Guard as well as some from private companies were also assisting in the search.
Two of the passengers were reportedly minors. The helicopter had an electronic locator, but no signals were received from it.
The Coast Guard was notified at 6:06 p.m. local time Thursday that the helicopter had not returned from a scheduled tour. Rain, clouds and winds up to 28 mph hampered the initial search efforts.
"The weather conditions are challenging," Petty Officer 1st Class Robert Cox, also with the JRRC, said in a statement Thursday night. "We have trained crews responding and on-scene searching for any signs of the helicopter and those aboard."
The helicopter belonged to a company called Safari Tours, according to The Associated Press. The company's website advertises 60-minute and 90-minute tours of the coast and surrounding area. It also offers volcano tours on the island of Hawaii.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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