Hawaii Official Who Died After Crash Wore Infant Life Vest

AssociatedPress ^ | May 5, 2016, 8:31 PM ET | Jennifer Sinco Kelleher

[LucyT]

Hawaii's former health director who died after a plane she was traveling in crashed into the ocean was wearing an infant life vest and the pilot didn't give a safety briefing before takeoff, according to details in a National Transportation Safety Board report.

An autopsy determined Loretta Fuddy died of an irregular heartbeat from hyperventilating after she exited the plane, which landed in choppy water off the island of Molokai. The pilot and seven other passengers on the 2013 Makani Kai Air flight survived.

Pilot Clyde Kawasaki reported to the NTSB that he heard a loud bang, followed by an immediate loss of engine power soon after the single-engine Cessna took off from Molokai, headed for Honolulu.

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[rx]

The shore-swimmer, Charles Philip "Flip" Hollstein, is listed on the flight manifest as weighing 160lbs. He is said to have worn an infant life jacket, calling it "tight." That PFD looks rather different than the adult life jacket several others wore during the ditching aftermath. (See this picture.)

It seems less likely that a 220lbs person--which is the weight the manifest lists for Fuddy--could get into the tight opening for an infant in a life vest.

[rx]

It would seem the NTSB relied on information from the USCG personnel to speak about the life jacket that was cut from Fuddy after she had been hoisted from the water.

Note, the first USCG swimmer that came upon Fuddy in the water left her there without even performing CPR. For the swimmer to let that happen according to protocols means he deemed her as obviously having been dead for some time. Three minutes later, a local Hawaii TV news report announced that an unidentified person had died in the event. (It would seem someone listening to radio communications passed info along from what the swimmer saw and did.)

A mere forty minutes thereafter, as a different USCG swimmer came upon Fuddy—still in the water—and hoisted her into his helo, at which time she was pronounced “CRITICAL”! (Neat trick!)

I don’t see evidence of what I would call “sloppiness” with regard to the central events or contemporaneous pronouncements about those events. Were you thinking of something particular?

The airport is an open to the air, without locked doors to gain access to the restrooms, for example.

As N687MA departed that day, at least two people on the airport watched it taxi away. The normal airport time of closure was 15 minutes or so thereafter, 3:30pm HST.

[bgill]

I was trying to give them the benefit of the doubt even though I was all over this back when it happened. We see she had on a properly inflated life vest so somewhere along the way, someone either made a mistake or it was switched out. It couldn’t have been switched until she was on the rescue helicopter, not while surrounded by the other passengers.

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http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/24246422/exclusive-pilot-describes-discovering-molokai-plane-crash
“Lang also claims they “contacted the Moloka’i tower for clearance just before 3:30 p.m. Wednesday. They say the tower operator asked if they were able to hear an “ELT” or Emergency Locator Transmitter.” But when they landed at the airport 5 minutes later, there was no one around. IOW, there was at least one person in the tower who knew there had been a crash but disappeared from the scene within moments. Who called the Coast Guard and the fire department?”

And then #201 - “Especially weird since the CG was notified of the crash at 3:27 (which would make the report of departure of 3:15 rather than the scheduled 3:35 more in line) be some time after the crash) and the airport wasn’t supposed to close until 3:30. Makes you wonder just when the airport personnel closed up or if they had bothered showing up for work that day. Also makes you wonder if Fuddy had chartered the plane and Kawasaki had hung around all day and if he left the plane unattended.”

[Fred Nerks]

http://www.isnorkel.com/common/images/products/oneill/large/2053-ylwpac-model.jpg

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[combat_boots]

One man SWAM to shore. A SCUBA diver showed up next to her...and ONLY her.

So, yeah. Let’s go with the ‘infant life vest.’

[ladyjane]

We don't know for sure whether Stanley Ann Dunham Soretero died. Freepers discovered her SS numbers are being used by someone owning apartment buildings in NYC. "

She's voted every year in Chicago too. ;-)

[Fred Nerks]

You might mean this:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2421197/posts

Murder of Mr. Lieutenant Quarles Harris Jr

[thecodont]

If the ‘twins’ box was altered, then that means they used the Nordyke twins’ birth cert as a template for 0’s.

Good observation.

It's good that this discussion is being kept alive.

[JoeProBono]

O'Neill O'Neill Nylon infant USCG life jacket (up to 30 lbs)

http://www.isnorkel.com/oneill-nylon-infant-uscg-life-jacket-up-to-30-lbs/

[rodguy911]

I don’t know about aviation vests but in boating there are usually only three types: small, med and large. Would not be out of the realm for the media to get the jargon wrong. If she had a “small” its possible she still could have go it over her neck just not where the life vest is supposed to go which his lower on the body.
Allthis is speculation since none of us were there ever with the go pro photos you don’t get the full spectrum of being there.Eyewitness is always hard to beat.

[rodguy911]

The pilot was dirty. He had enough elevation, time and speed to get back to the runway but he ditched the plane on purpose.This whole thing is all wrong.

[Fred Nerks]

There were three women, Fuddy, Rosa Key and an unnamed 75 year old woman...the top image appears to show Fuddy at the door, with Yamamoto barely visible, trying to help her. Fuddy's life jacket appears to be fully inflated.

[Yaelle]

There is no way. No way to get your shoulders inside an infant life vest. It’s a lie. I couldn’t get mine into a toddler size. Infant would be smaller.

[LucyT]

Back to an old thread w new comments.

Ping to # 74 , then scroll to # 76 , and read to end of page.

Thanks, all. Interesting info.

[Freedom56v2]

Wow...more info keeps coming!

[rx]

"There is no way."

That's the meme into which we're supposed to buy, isn't it?

Since "there is no way," we're supposed to be entirely understanding that if Fuddy wore an infant life jacket, it would cause anybody to be stressed, hyperventilate or even have a heart arrhythmia.

Don't buy it from the start!   The clear evidence we weren't supposed to see (Fuddy's brother, Lewis, said he didn't want her image shown on TV--hmmm) is that she wore a fully-inflated, adult life jacket!

She was declared to be CRITICAL forty minutes after she was left in the water--deemed by protocols to be unqualified even to receive CPR--as clearly dead.

USCG guys follow orders or they get court-martialed.

[little jeremiah]

I hope it all comes out eventually in a book. After the trials, of course.

[rx]

3:15 was the departure time listed on the manifest, and although Schuman, the airline owner and Army veteran, told various media outlets the crash happened at 3:15, 3:30, 3:45 and “ten minutes into the flight”, I have to favor 3:22 as the time of the crash, as two passengers’ cheap watches, both showed that time far later into the scenario aftermath.

What is the significance of #201, by the way?

The 3:15 flight was a regularly scheduled flight, subsidized to keep passenger ticket prices down and somewhat affordable for the tourists. I believe the pilot normally waits around between the morning and afternoon flight, but being an 18,000+ hour pilot, this particular flight’s pilot, who also had been Schuman Air’s Director of Operations, would have been a more expensive lay-over than most freshly-minted, building-time-for-the-majors flight instructor-types.

[Fred Nerks]

Would never have happened if the correct safety regulations had been followed:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/qOw44VFNk8Y?feature=player_embedded%22frameborder=%220%22allowfullscreen%3e%3c/iframe

[rx]

Trials?   What trials do you imagine will take place?