Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are investigating the cause of a touring helicopter crash, which killed the pilot and his four passengers.
Among the dead were Michael and Nicole Abel, who had just married five days prior and were on their honeymoon. Two other unnamed passengers were touring from Ontario Canada were also on the chopper with Nathan Cline, a very experienced pilot.
The helicopter belonged to Blue Hawaiian, a company that gives over 160,000 helicopter tours a year for all the islands in the state. The helicopter was a touring chopper that was carrying the five people on an excursion of West Maui and Molokai when it went down near an Elementary School on Thursday.
The cause of the crash is yet to be known, but it is expected to be a result of bad weather. When the helicopter crashed, it was immediately engulfed in flames. The bodies were recovered after the fire had died down inside the helicopter, just a quarter mile away from the Elementary School.
The owner of Blue Hawaiian, David Chevalier, said that the passengers were taking a 45-minute tour that departed from Kahului, on Maui. Nathan Cline who was piloting the chopper had a good reputation. In fact, he was a personal friend of the Mayer of Maui, Alan Arakawa. The pilot had taken Arakawa along with his team around the islands when they were having tsunami problems. According to Arakawa, the pilot was very experienced in dealing with dangerous situations.
The helicopter that crashed was an EC-130 chopper. It was less than a year old and was on lease from Nevada.
Touring helicopters have seen their share of crashes through the years over the tall mountains of Hawaii. In March 2007, four people died when a Heli-USA Airways helicopter crashed at Princeville Airport on Kauai. In 2005, a helicopter crashed into the ocean off the coast of Kauai. In 2004, five people were killed when a helicopter crashed into a mountain on Kauai.
If you know someone that has been injured or killed in a Helicopter crash, contact V&B for free information on how our experienced attorneys can help. Category: Wrongful Death
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