ハワイ旅行･ホテル･ショッピング･グルメ･求人

Two Japanese tourists and a tour pilot were reported missing on the Big Island yesterday after their plane failed to return back to the Kona airport yesterday. The single-engine Cessna 172 that went missing was operated by Island Hoppers tour company. The flight was scheduled to head clockwise around the Big Island, and was last seen by another pilot with the same tour company around 12:45pm. The plane left Kona at about 10:15am and was due to return at 1:30pm.

The plane was reported missing after a tour that included a flight over Kilauea volcano. It is the second incident involving a tour plane from Island Hoppers in two months. On April 16, a pilot on an air tour of the Big Island made an emergency landing on Highway 130 after the single-prop aircraft developed engine trouble south of Hilo.

An overnight search conducted by authorities failed to find any visual evidence of the missing plane. A US Coast Guard C-130 search plane flying above the Piihonua area early this morning detected a brief radio signal believed to be from the missing flight. The signal, however, was too brief for rescuers to located where the signal was coming from. Fire Department and Civil Air Patrols ground search crews will be sent this morning to the Saddle Road area where the emergency locator transmission may have originated.