Posted on 01/10/2014 1:52:43 PM PST by The Sons of Liberty
A month after a small plane crash in Hawaii, a surviving passenger shows GoPro footage and even a selfie taken during the ordeal.
Would you have done the same? Ferdinand Puentes was one of nine passengers in a 2002 Cessna Grand Caravan which suddenly suffered engine failure off Kalaupapa, Molokai in Hawaii last month. As he heard the engine fail and saw the plane heading for the water, one of his first instincts was to turn on his GoPro camera and film what might have been his own demise. As KHON-TV reports, Puentes knew the danger he was in, yet the decision to film as much as possible might perplex a few. He managed to get out of the plane alive and survived the crash. However, while he was floating on a seat cushion and wearing his life raft, he took a selfie.
Was the impulse to record just a natural reaction? After all, any bystander or news organization would have likely done the same thing. And these days everyone is using their phones to film just about everything they see. But wouldn't one's first instinct be to try to contact family and friends to say goodbye? Perhaps that did happen. The footage reflects a quite stunning lack of panic. The passengers behave in an orderly manner. There is no screaming or pushing. No one seems frantic at all. Loretta Fuddy, Hawaii's 65-year-old state director of health, died in the crash, despite managing to leave the plane. In watching Puentes talk to KHON-TV, though, it's evident that the footage brings back painful memories. Would everyone want to have such ready access to a reminder? Or would some prefer to forget? "You could have died," Puentes told KHON-TV. "There's so much variations that could have happened for the worse."
That is a fair answer, Butter. I do see one blurry spot of purple above the person’s head, so you are right there.
As to eyeglasses, I don’t know if the person is wearing them or not. The image is too indistinct. If not, the eyes cd still be open (though the person might be dead). At death the muscles cease to work. If a conscious person dies with their eyes open, they will just stay open. (No active muscles to shut them.) Otoh, if Fuddy was unconscious w her eyes shut, they wd not as a rule have opened at the moment of death.
The hair is something else I’m not sure about. Looks like the same shade as Fuddy’s, but maybe a little darker. If it had gotten damp at some point, that wd acct for both the slightly darker tint and the suggestion that it is longer than Fuddy’s completely dry hair had appeared. The image is too indistinct to say for certain either way, imo.
The single most telling factor for me is simply the macabre appearance of the face. It is very white looking, and also just...strange. Before any suggestion was made that it was Fuddy, my reaction was, ‘What on earth is wrong w that bizarre face? It looks Creepy.’ No disrespect intended toward the dead. That is just the impression I had, & it was a strong one.
Again, I wouldn’t say for certain one way or the other. These are just my impressions. Take them for what they are worth.
http://www.nanaimodailynews.com/news/nation-world/pastor-recounts-last-moments-of-hawaii-official-killed-in-plane-crash-1.756517
“He recounted how he said he helped Loretta into her life jacket and he held her hand for some time,” the priest said. “They were all floating together and she let go and there was no response from her.”
The people in the water when rescuers arrived seemed calm while floating on their backs, Coast Guard rescuers said.
____________________
Here’s the link: http://www.kitv.com/news/hawaii/survivor-says-fuddy-showed-no-signs-of-distress/-/8905354/23482426/-/sloipw/-/index.html
I didn’t read anything here where anyone “suggested” what the pilot should do. What I remember reading was a news article. Not an “urban legend”, but here’s a legend: The pilot is the one who swam to shore: http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/breaking/235590541.html
“The Rev. Pat Killilea, pastor of St. Francis Church at Kalaupapa, said he didn’t see the plane hit the water, but watched rescue operations from Kalaupapa’s airport where the survivors were taken.
Killilea said the pilot swam to shore to get help for the passengers floating offshore.
“He (pilot) had been able to get the passengers out of the plane wearing their life vests. However, once in the water they were beginning to drift apart and so he decide to swim to shore to get help,” Killilea said this morning in a phone interview. He added, “There was blood on his (pilot’s) chest when he arrived at the airport.””
For the record, I’m not suggesting anyone is complicit in any homicidal plot. I’m trying to resolve discrepancies in the news reports versus the stories told by the survivors, and then compare all of that to what we see on the video and the still pictures. I’m asking questions, which any wise and reasonable person would do, considering the changing stories and the “facts” that don’t add up, not to mention the stories that are being scrubbed even as we write. I’m not questioning Yamamoto at all. He’s not been quoted yet, so far as I know. What doesn’t hang together is the narrative told by the priest, which he says he heard from Yamamoto.
from your link:
“Before beginning his mile-long swim back to shore, Holstein noticed Fuddy clinging to her deputy, Keith Yamamoto...”
I imagine what he means is that the last time he saw them was when they were together near the door of the aircraft, which is shown in the image we saw...he seems to be holding her arm or her hand.
There have been a number of threads, I did read the suggestion that what the pilot should have done was instructed the passengers all to hold hands and tread water in a circle. It was a suggestion made by a freeper, we are all full of good ideas in hindsight, meanwhile the fact of the matter is that the pilot was floating around out of camera range when Puentes took a shot of the six that were in one of his images, and the pilot was elsewhere with blood on his face.
The Reverend was clearly mistaken, it was a passenger who swam to shore.
Sounds more like the Reverend thought that the swimmer was the the pilot, but he wasn’t.
You are asking questions - which, as you say, any wise and reasonable person would do, and I am trying to answer them in the only way I see from the images and the video, which are less clear than we would like them be.
I long ago gave up the idea of trying to make sense of the pathetic standard of reporting in connection with this event, right from the beginning, it was evident there was going to be a problem with the simple matter of WHO WHAT WHEN WHERE WHY & HOW.
Since they stopped teaching that at journalism school, it’s all downhill and guesswork, and stupid although attractive faces on the screen.
Before beginning his mile-long swim back to shore
______________
A mile or a half mile? Just another of the discrepancies.
The Reverend was clearly mistaken,
__________________
Clearly. That’s one of my points. The only source for Yamamoto’s version of what happened is the priest, and the priest has said things at odds with what others have said. The priest ought to know a good deal about what happened with Fuddy, since he was there at the care home where he gave her the last rites.
I can’t argue with that.
Whistle Blower Claims She Forged Obama’s Birth Certificate, Guess Who It Is?
The Liberty Digest ^ | Dec 26, 2013 | William Wallace
Posted on Friday, 27 December 2013 5:12:33 AM by Fawn
It is important to note that the only person to “see” and authenticate the long form birth certificate of one President Barrack H. Obama is now dead in a plane crash. Even more controversial is the one that they submitted as truth on the Whitehouse.gov website is 10 layered in Photo Shop and thought to be fake. The conspiracy never seems to die.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3105481/posts?page=1
NTSB: Hawaii plane floated 25 mins, then sank.
AP via Star Advertiser ^ | Dec 31, 2013 | AP via Star Advertiser
Posted on Thursday, 2 January 2014 10:18:25 AM by RckyRaCoCo
The National Transportation Safety Board says in a preliminary accident report that a small commercial plane that crash-landed in Hawaii waters floated for about 25 minutes before sinking.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3107346/posts?page=1
When you click on the image, that brings up an article and a video:
PLANE CRASH SURVIVOR PRAISES PILOT
Which content disappears a few seconds afterwards - and try as I might, I can't download the content.
I thought to bring this to your attention, because of the images you have on your blog, the person in the water wearing the white background-printed short sleeved shirt in your image collection on your blog, is shown (the shirt is)sitting across from Rosa Keys and is probably the same one you show with a pony tail in the water - so the man on the wing in the brown shirt can't be Jacob Keys, can he?
In the article, which I was able to quickly read before it disappeared from view, C Phillip Hollister says he provided Fuddy with an inflated lifejacket...so I guess that's him swimming away from the aircraft while Yamamoto is looking after her.
But as Hollstein has gray hair and the man in the water with the ponytail has to be Keys, the man on the wing can't be Jacob Keys, he has to be one of the unidentified tourists...whose brown sleeve appears on the right hand side inside the aircraft.
That image must have been taken very soon after the plane went down, there seem to be at least still two people who haven't entered the water yet..
This image you enlarged and darkened shows the pattern on the white sleeve of the shirt, seen next to Rosa Keys:
The man in the brown shirt on the wing and the woman without a jacket appear to remain unidentfied.
Survivor says Fuddy showed no signs of distress
‘As far as her giving any signs of distress, I didn’t see anything,’ said C. Phillip Hollstein
Published 6:04 PM HST Dec 13, 2013
Survivor swims to shore after plane crash
A survivor of the Molokai plane crash tells KITV he had NO IDEA Health Director Loretta Fuddy was in the final moments of her life when he decided to make a swim for shore. He talked to KITV4 News tonight about the crash and the aftermath... KITV-4’s Andrew Pereira has our continuing coverage... Andrew? Kenny, Yunji... Phillip Holstein says Fuddy did not appear injured and no one on board the plane panicked. Rough ocean conditions, smoke flares in the water and survivors being hoisted to safety. These pictures taken by Kao- hulani McGuire show the aftermath of Wednesday’s dramatic ditching of a Makani Kai Cessna Grand Caravan off Kalaupapa. Molokai resident Kirk Dela Cruz watched from shore as survivors bobbed in the ocean. KIRK DELA CRUZ: “I SAW ALL THE LIFE VESTS AND I SAW ONE PERSON AT THE POINT AND HE WAS TRYING TO COME IN.” The person swimming toward the rocky shoreline was 70-year-old Phillip Holstein, a U.S. Army vet who travelled to Molokai as part of his fire sprinkler business. PHILLIP HOLSTEIN: “I GOT TIRED OF JUST WAITING AROUND, SO I FIGUERED I BETTER GET GOING YOU KNOW MAYBE I CAN TELL SOMEONE WHAT’S HAPPENING AND WHAT. SO, I JUST KIND OF TOOK OFF.” Holstein says it was shortly after takeoff when he heard a dull pop. Less than a minute later, the plane was in the water. Holstein credits Makani Kai pilot Clyde Kawasaki for keeping the plane upright upon impact. PHILLIP HOLSTEIN: “HIS CONTROL OF THE AIRPLANE IS WHY WE’RE STILL HERE AS FAR AS I CAN SEE. YOU KNOW HE DID EVERYTHING RIGHT.” Holstein says no one panicked as the plane came to a standstill. He tried to open the door closest to him, but it would not budge. A fellow passenger, Jacob Key, was able to pry open the main cabin door and one- by-one everyone used the built-in steps to “walk” into the ocean. PHILIP HOLSTEIN: “SO EVEN THOUGH THE WATER WAS COMING IN, BUT IT WAS... I’M SURE IT MADE IT EASIER FOR PEOPLE TO GET OUT, THEY JUST GO DOWN THE STEPS AND LIKE GOING INTO A SWIMMING POOL. PHILIP HOLSTEIN: “NONE OF THIS PANIC STUFF LIKE YOU SEE IN THE MOVIES. EVERYBODY WAS EXCELLENT.” Before beginning his mile-long swim back to shore, Holstein noticed state Health Director Loretta Fuddy clinging to her deputy Keith Yamamoto. PHILIP HOLSTEIN: “I KNOW HE WAS WATCHING HER JUST BECAUSE HE WAS WITH HER, THEY TRAVEL TOGETHER AND ALL THAT STUFF. AS FAR AS HER GIVING ANY SIGNS OF DISTRESS, I DIDN’T SEE ANYTHING.” Holstein has yet to be interviewed by the National Transportation Safety Board, but expects to be contacted soon.
HONOLULU —A passenger who survived Wednesday’s ditching of a single-engine airplane off Kalaupapa says state Health Director Loretta Fuddy, 65, was conscious after she and eight others entered the water.
“As far as her giving any signs of distress, I didn’t see anything,” said C. Phillip Hollstein, 70, who was on Molokai for his fire sprinkler business.
A U.S. Coast Guard rescue swimmer says Fuddy had no pulse when he reached her to hoist her to safety. Fuddy was the only person on board the plane who didn’t survive.
Hollstein says he heard a dull pop shortly after the Makani Kai Cessna Grand Caravan 208B took off from the airport in Kalaupapa. He credits pilot Clyde Kawasaki with giving the passengers on board a chance to survive, and estimates it took less than a minute for the plane to hit the water.
“His control of the airplane is why we’re still here, as far as I can see,” said Hollstein. “We’re all very fortunate because had that plane flipped over, it would have been a whole different story, I’m sure.”
Hollstein says upon hitting the water, he tried to open the door closest to him, but it would not budge. A fellow passenger, Jacob Key, was able to pry open the main cabin door, and one by one, everyone on board used the built-in steps to “walk” into the ocean.
“So, even though the water was coming in, I’m sure it made it easier for people to get out,” said Hollstein. “They just go down the steps like going into a swimming pool.”
Before beginning his mile-long swim back to shore, Holstein noticed Fuddy clinging to her deputy, Keith Yamamoto.
“I know he was watching her just because he was with her, they travel together and all that stuff,” he said. “Everyone was just helping everyone and nobody was panicking, even in the water.”
The National Transportation Safety Board has sent a team to Honolulu to investigate the crash. Hollstein says he has yet to be interviewed by the NTSB, but expects to be contacted soon.
“The whole thing was surreal, just knowing that we’re going to be going into the water,” explained Hollstein. “I wasn’t thinking about dying or anything. I said, ‘OK, well let’s see what happens.’”
Looks like the cut and paste picked up the transcript as well as the text of the article. This is NOT the article I previously referred to, in this, he says nothing about giving Fuddy a lifevest.
I'm still trying to raise the content of the above URL. If anyone can, please cut and paste the content here for the record. The title of the article is: PLANE CRASH SURVIVOR PRAISES PILOT
If this is saying there were not enough lifevests for all, does that mean there were extra passengers ?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
