ハワイ旅行･ホテル･ショッピング･グルメ･求人

A tour plane missing on the Big Island was found on Sunday on the slopes of Mauna Loa. There were no survivors. Yesterday, helicopter crews recovered the bodies of pilot Katsuhiro Takahashi of Kona and his two Japanese passengers Nobuhiro Suzuki and his wife, Masako. The plane was found by helicopter pilot David Okita on the Southeastern slope of Mauna Loa at an elevation of around 5,200 feet.

The site of the crash was about eight miles from Pahala in dense forest and vegetation. A clue to the location of the plane came from campers in the area who heard the sound of an airplane engine abruptly stop in mid-flight. The impact of the crash smashed the plane into several pieces, flipped it over and sheared of one of the wings.

Search crews had already covered the area several days earlier and the helicopter pilot who discovered the plane had flown over the area once before. The area where the plane was found is surrounded by dense vegetation, 40 foot trees and ten foot high ferns, and many officials were surprised that the plane was found at all. Weather conditions at the site only allow for a few hours of good weather, several limiting the amount of time crews can search. During recovery efforts yesterday, crews raced as weather conditions quickly deteriorated.

The National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation, but it will be months before the agency can make a determination as to whether it was bad weather or mechanical failure that brought down the plane.