What: Blue Hawaiian Helicopters Eurocopter EC130 B4 helicopter departing from Kahului
Where: Kaunakakai, Molokai island, Hawaii
When: November 9, 2011 at 12:30 pm
Who: pilot Nathan Cline, 30, of Kihei and 4 tourists
Why: While on a 45 minute tour of West Hawaii, the chopper crashed into a mountain. The accident occurred on Wednesday, less than a mile from Kilohana Elementary School, right after a hard rain. At the school, students heard an explosion and saw black smoke when the chopper crashed.
The pilot and four tourists died at the scene. Although the investigation is ongoing, according to at least one published report, the NTSB said that the pilot failed to maintain enough altitude over the terrain amid low-lying clouds.
Two of the passengers were newlyweds, and they came from Pennsylvania and Ontario Canada.
Blue Hawaiian, which conducts 160,000 tours yearly, leased the year old chopper from Nevada Helicopter Leasing LLC.
Four bodies have been recovered. The fifth has been located, but is in a difficult location.
