The pilot took every precaution in landing the craft while maintaining a perfectly good engine. He pretended and claimed he had a catastrophic engine failure, but he would make sure that the engine was still running and the prop would simply be feathered that that low rumble sound would be gone.
The bathymetric map found in the NTSB Factual report shows an area not far from where the plane went down that had water that was only one meter deep! As it was, it appear the plane may have lodged its left wheel on an outcropping of ocean floor.
See how the plane is listing to starboard, with its left wing way above the water. See the plane window just fore of the door compared with the window on the far side. If the plane had settled onto the open ocean, it would have done so symmetrically with respect to both wings. There was no pontoon effect as the baggage pod had been obliterated in crash, strewing its contents behind the plane.
There was no existential threat in the cabin! Ha! "Lucky to survive" brings to mind the videographer's words, that he was "just trying to survive" as he mugged selfies in the shallows, as he studiously avoided going ashore when he could have just as easily as FH had.
You say there's some jostling in the cabin? I've watched it many a time. No gets thrown sideways, into other people, falls down, knocked into the ceiling. You have no idea the awful things that can happen in plane crashes! There was no rough ride in this case.
Take the videographer. Here are two pictures of him: 1) prior to a catastrophic engine failure, where life was good and he's flying, looking down below at a blue paradise, and 2) after a large metal hammer "bang" from the engine, then "everything went quiet," when he said he saw his whole life flash before his eyes, where he suggested (with whimpering) that he didn't get a chance to say good-bye to his family, etc.
Not much difference, eh? What's that you say, "That's just the laid-back of hangin' loose the Hawaiian way?"
No. When another Cessna Grand Caravan just two months earlier happened to have a "catastrophic engine failure" forty miles away over Maui there was smoke, sparks, screaming, panic, people calling their loved-ones on cell phones, hand-holding, I-love-yous to nearby seated spouses and people reaching for their life jackets.
On this flight? Not one of those things, not even anyone reaching for a life jacket.
There's a reason for the difference, and it boils down to one word. Over Maui a Cessna Grand Caravan had a catastrophic engine failure. At Kalaupapa, the plane occupants staged a hoax.
Pratt & Whitney Canada's tear-down of the engine sent them from this event found that "the power turbine blades were all present, but fractured, with only 1/3rd to 4/5ths of their spans remaining. The trailing edges of all the compressor turbine vanes were fractured due to impact with associated material loss and subsequent thermal distress. The compressor turbine shroud segments were intact, yet coated with a metal spray deposit consistent with melted material from the compressor turbine blades. There were two impact marks in the shape of a turbine blade chord on two shroud segments. The compressor turbine blades were all present, but fractured, leaving only between 1/3rd and 2/3rds of each blade span remaining. There was also an associated "intense internal fire". There can be no question that the engine damage noted by P&WC certainly qualifies under the term “catastrophic engine failure.”
Although he’s no pilot, one of the passengers that’s also a FaceBook friend of the pilot wrote two years later about the flight “Another small miracle of note is the fact that no fire accompanied the crash. The plane had plenty of fuel for the flight, the engine was red hot, yet nothing ignited.”
That passenger might well be surprised at what the pilot told the media about a fire warning juxtaposed with a “bang” and what both P&WC and the NTSB have said about the intense internal fire of which P&WC’s torn-down engine showed evidence. Or perhaps he wouldn’t be surprised!
The Kalaupapa flight was rough for the passengers that suffered severe injuries, but our sympathies may be limited by the foreknowledge these passengers showed, knowing as they did that there would be insurance coverage on the back side, "should anything happen."
Those people's injuries were treated most cruelly by the planners, since those injuries were not tended to before the main goal of having Ms Fuddy be extracted was accomplished, despite there being on-scene military trained divers available to do so, should they have been inclined ordered to do so.
Generally, these people had no less than tax-payer-paid agents looking after their well-being. Which is to say, most of them did not have a particularly rough ride (certainly not in the cabin after the craft had come to a complete stop), but even those that did have injuries had agreed to take on those risks, probably out of a well-intentioned interest in helping our service men and women in uniform and in government.
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By the way, everyone, please be apprised I consider my posts proprietary and copyrighted with all rights reserved, as I just "just might want to write a book in the near future!" I hope that suits you OK. Thanks!
