Skydiving plane crashes in Hawaii, killing all 9 aboard
HONOLULU (AP) — A skydiving plane crashed and burst into flames just outside a small seaside airport on the island of Oahu, killing six employees of the company that operated the flight and three of its customers, officials said.
Preliminary information gathered by the Federal Aviation Administration indicated the Friday evening crash of the twin-engine Beechcraft King Air plane happened as it took off from Dillingham Airfield on the north shore of the island, FAA spokesman Greg Martin said in a statement Saturday.
Some witnesses reported the plane crashed as it was inbound to the airport, said Honolulu Fire Chief Manuel Neves, cautioning that those reports had not been confirmed.
The plane was operated by the Oahu Parachute Center skydiving company and the ratio of employees to customers suggested that tandem jumps may have been planned in which the customers would have jumped while attached to experienced skydivers, Tim Sakahara, a spokesman for the Hawaii Department of Transportation, told reporters.
Neves described the site of the crash near the airport's perimeter as being "quite a ways away from the runway" and said some family members of those aboard were at the airport when the plane went down about 6:30 p.m.
"In my 40 years as a firefighter here in Hawaii, this is the most tragic aircraft incident that we've had," Neves said.
The plane was engulfed in flames when firefighters made it to the crash site about an hour drive from Honolulu, Neves said. The victims were not identified.
Two FAA inspectors went to the crash site Friday and investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board that will investigate the crash were expected to arrive this evening, said safety board spokesman Eric Weiss.
The plane with two turboprop engines was manufactured in 1967, FAA records said.
The phone for Oahu Parachute Center went unanswered today.