Overview
- A sightseeing helicopter operated by Airborne Aviation crashed near a sandbar off Kalalau Beach on Thursday, killing three people and injuring two others.
- Authorities identified two of the dead as Patrick Haskell, 59, and Margaret Rimmler, 65, from Massachusetts, while the third victim was a 40-year-old woman who has not been named.
- U.S. Coast Guard crews and good Samaritans rescued the survivors from a sandbar about 100 yards offshore.
- Federal investigators opened an inquiry into the crash of a Hughes OH-6 Cayuse used for sightseeing flights.
- The incident adds to a troubling pattern on Kauai, where at least 16 people have died in tour helicopter crashes over the past seven years.