Posted on: Saturday, June 16, 2007 –
Honolulu
advertiser.
Lucky couple survives airplane
crash
By
Dan Nakaso and Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff
Writers
HAWAI'I KAI — A husband and wife who
ditched a small airplane in the ocean off Koko Head — possibly
after running out of fuel — were rescued uninjured yesterday
and reunited on shore less than 45 minutes later to share a
kiss.
The 29-year-old husband was the last to
arrive on land, delivered by a Honolulu fire rescue boat, then walked
barefoot across the parking lot of Maunalua
Bay Beach Park in Hawai'i
Kai.
Sitting at the side of a fire engine,
wrapped in a firefighter's turnout coat, was his 31-year-old
wife. She had been airlifted to shore 10 minutes earlier in a
basket dangling below the fire department's Air 1
helicopter.
Both of them declined medical
treatment.
Witnesses and officials said the rescue
had gone very smoothly.
"It looked like Honolulu's finest was doing its job,"
said Rainer Kumbroch, president of Roy's
Restaurant on Kalaniana'ole Highway,
who watched as the couple were returned to land. "We see a
whole lot of activity out here with rescue helicopters. It's
seldom good news."
The single-engine Cessna 150 radioed
that it had an in-flight emergency and ditched about 5:53 p.m.
two miles southeast of China Walls, the Coast Guard
said.
Ian Gregor, a spokesman for the FAA,
said the couple had been the only two people on
board.
"The pilot declared an emergency due to
engine problems before he ditched his plane," Gregor
said.
George Hanzawa, the owner of George's
Aviation Service, said his company rented the 1968, two-seat
Cessna to a pilot named Mike, who had the proper pilot's
license. Mike and his wife Christina are from North or
South
Carolina, Hanzawa
said.
George's had Mike take a "check-out
flight" in the Cessna to demonstrate his skills before renting
him the plane and a life raft.
"We provided the life raft," Hanzawa
said. "That's what saved their lives. They took the right
precautions, and used the right equipment. They did everything
correctly."
Mike took off from George's, on
Lagoon
Drive, at about 7 a.m. with no
specific destination, Hanzawa
said.
Mike later told Hanzawa that the
plane's fuel gauge had been flickering near empty, Hanzawa
said.
"Just speculating, I think they ran out
of fuel," he said. "It ran weaker and then
quit."
The plane sank before rescue crews
arrived. There was no sign of wreckage or water pollution from
it, the Coast Guard said.
Firefighters spotted a life raft with
the man and woman on board about two miles southeast of China
Walls, said Honolulu Fire Capt. Paul
Stankiewicz.
"Obviously for a plane crash, they came
out of it pretty lucky," Stankiewicz said. "They were able to
get out, get right into a raft and be rescued. They were
shaken up a little bit. I'd say they were pretty
lucky."
Last night, George's Aviation continued
to operate, even with the loss of the Cessna, valued at about
$30,000, Hanzawa said.
"We're still operating now," he said.
"Why not? We never do nothing wrong. ... The loss of the
aircraft is not even on my mind. The people are alive, and
that's ultimately our goal. We provided them a safe, working
aircraft, and safe, working equipment that allowed them to
survive."
Police returned Mike and Christina to
George's last night so they could pick up their rental car and
return to their hotel.
George's, near Honolulu
International
Airport,
offers aircraft rentals, flight instruction and charters,
according to its Web site.
In January 2003, a 17-year-old student
pilot in a Cessna 177B owned by the company crashed and died
off of Moloka'i's Kalaupapa
peninsula.
Chezray Hayes, a Mililani
High
School senior, was making his
first solo interisland flight.
The National Transportation Safety
Board later concluded the boy was flying was flying in
conditions that required instrument training he had not
received.
In 2006 a Piper Chieftain propeller
plane operated by George's Aviation belly-landed at Lana'i
Airport.
None of the four people aboard was
injured.
Advertiser staff writer
Peter Boylan contributed to this report.
