“Who took Yamamoto and Fuddy to the airport? Was it Miller himself and he would rather not talk about it?”
Butter says Miller did but no one knows the exact time. The plane left at 3:23 and crashed at 3:25.
After picking them up in the morning and being with them all day, did he just drop them at the airport and head home? We just do not know.
well, it won’t hurt to take up a little more space:
“He’s a pilot that I’ve flown with frequently — he’s one of the best,” said Department of Health Kalaupapa Administrator Mark Miller. “He proved it by being seriously injured and still getting everyone out the airplane.”
Miller said Kawasaki was bleeding with possible broken ribs and leg injuries when he arrived on shore after being pulled from the water by Maui County Fire Rescue and Coast Guard personnel.
“He got the plane landed [on the water] and was able to get everybody out,” continued Miller of Kawasaki. “The currents out there were awful… with big waves and white caps… He tried to get everyone to stay together… they all had life vests on.”
Miller said Fuddy and fellow passenger DOH Deputy Director Keith Yamamoto were separated from each other by the currents.
He said by 4:30 p.m., seven passengers were accounted for but two were still in the Coast Guard helicopter. The male on board survived but Fuddy could not be revived.
According to the Coast Guard, rescue swimmers were deployed from helicopters, rescuing three passengers in the water. Maui Fire Rescue rescued the additional passengers.
Miller said Fuddy’s body was taken to the care home while a priest came to say the last rights and some residents paid their final respects. Her body was then transported to Molokai General Hospital.
Besides the two Department of Health officials, Miller said two of the passengers were tourists, one was a construction worker, another came to do some work for the day in Kalaupapa, and one was a Kalaupapa National Park Service employee, along with her husband.
Miller described the survivors as dazed and subdued when they got back on shore.
According to Molokai General Hospital staff, the three survivors who were taken to the hospital last night arrived dripping wet, cold, hungry and most of all, tired. The hospital washed and dried their clothes, fed them and let them rest. The three reportedly stayed at Hotel Molokai last night.
Three of the other survivors were taken directly to Oahu, while two declined treatment, remaining in Kalaupapa, according to emergency officials.
Miller called it fortunate that a military aircraft was doing touch and goes at the Kalaupapa airport around the time of the crash and reported the accident. Within 15 minutes, Coast Guard was on site, and minutes afterward, Maui County fire and rescue personnel had divers starting rescue operations, said Miller.
“We set up triage station in the airport — everybody was there to lend assistance… with blankets, extra clothes and food,” reported Miller.
So it sounds like Miller was watching from the shore, the helicopters belonged to the rescue service, the fire department and the coast guard, and all the ‘military aircraft’ might have been responsible for is reporting the accident.
Touch-and-go landingFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
.In aviation, a touch-and-go landing or circuit is a maneuver that is common when learning to fly a fixed-wing aircraft. It involves landing on a runway and taking off again without coming to a full stop. Usually the pilot then circles the airport in a defined pattern known as a circuit and repeats the maneuver. This allows many landings to be practiced in a short time.[1]
If the pilot brings the aircraft to a full stop before taking off again then it is known as “stop-and-go”.
Because he has a lot to say and that's the one thing he doesn't talk about, I think it's pretty safe to assume it was him. If he dropped them off at the airport and turned around and drove away, it might indicate that not all was sweetness and light on the island. We have no idea what the dispute was they came to settle, and I have a sense they are never going to tell you. Could that have any bearing on the accident which followed? Only if the dispute was of such import and created such animousity... And you'll never know. Will you?
“The plane left at 3:23 and crashed at 3:25.”
The Cessna 208B takeoff was 1520 Hours (3:20PM), and the ditching in the sea occurred by 1522 Hours (3:22PM).