HONOLULU (AP) — When the lone engine of a small commercial plane failed, the nine people on board stayed calm as the aircraft glided toward the ocean and made a remarkably smooth belly landing, a survivor recounted Friday.
C. Phillip Hollstein Jr., a 70-year-old Kailua man, swam a half-mile in 6-foot waves to a rugged shoreline after the crash, which killed state health Director Loretta Fuddy. The others on board suffered only minor injuries.
Hollstein said the pilot, Clyde Kawasaki, expertly maneuvered the plane after the engine failed, avoiding what could have been a catastrophic impact on the water.
“He did everything right,” Hollstein said. “He set it up for the best crash-landing you could do.”
The engine on Makani Kai Air’s 2002 Cessna Grand Caravan turboprop cut out less than a minute after takeoff from the island of Molokai on Wednesday afternoon, just as the plane was making a turn toward its destination of Honolulu, Hollstein said.
There was a “muffled bang,” he said, and “then we were a glider.”
“Everyone was real quiet. We hit (the water), and it was all about getting the belts off,” Hollstein said. People put on life jackets and remained in the plane until it started sinking, he said.
“There wasn’t panic or anything. It was very orderly. It wasn’t like any of the movies or the TV shows,” Hollstein said.
When Hollstein saw that everyone was out of the plane, bobbing in the water and seemingly without any major injuries, he swam for shore, guessing it took 90 minutes.
http://www.newstimes.com/news/us/article/Hawaii-survivor-Plane-lost-power-then-glided-5060760.php
There is so much contradiction someone should make a chart or something. Everyone out of the plane, Fuddy didn’t make it out of the plane. 6 foot chop, 40 foot waves. I know there are more contradictions but that’s all I can think of right now as I’m tired.
And just WHY can’t they bring the plane up to take a look at it?
And why no autopsy report?
And if Fuddy didn’t make it out of the plane, how was the deputy director (Yamamoto or something?) holding her hand as they floated about?
And when engines just cut out do they make a “bang”?