The actual NTSB report says the passengers were rescued within 80 minutes.
http://www.ntsb.gov/aviationquery/GenPDF.aspx?id=WPR14FA068&rpt=p
On December 11, 2013, at 1522 Hawaiian standard time, a Cessna 208B, N687MA, sustained substantial damage following a loss of engine power and ditching into the Pacific near Kalaupapa, Hawaii.
The airline transport pilot and two passengers were seriously injured, one passenger was fatally injured, and five passengers received minor injuries. Makani Kai Air was operating the flight under the provisions of 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 135. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed
for the cross-country flight, which had originated about 2 minutes before the accident. A company flight plan had been filed. The flight departed from the Kalaupapa airport on the island of Molokai, and was en route to Honolulu International airport, on the island of Oahu.
The pilot stated that shortly after takeoff, a loud bang was heard and there was a total loss of power. After a short glide, he performed an open ocean ditching. The airplane floated for approximately 25 minutes and then sank. All the passengers put on their life preservers and exited the airplane. US Coast Guard and Maui Fire and Rescue personnel recovered the passengers approximately 80 minutes later.
Updated on Dec 30 2013 3:32PM
Thanks for that link. Sounds like they’re just repeating what the pilot claimed. They don’t include any other information, such as how the accident was detected, what any of the other witnesses said, what the recordings indicated for times, etc.
And the language is not clear. 80 minutes later than what? Than when the passengers exited the plane? Than when the plane sank? The news write-up about this report (at http://www.kitv.com/news/hawaii/report-confirms-pilots-account-in-molokai-emergency-landing/-/8905354/23717130/-/sy2wnjz/-/index.html#ixzz2pT8i1D1a ) understood the report to mean that the rescue crews got there 80 minutes after the victims exited the plane.
But even if the rescue was all done (everybody lifted from the water into rescue craft) 80 minutes after the victims exited the plane, that still wouldn’t explain a news report of one fatality 55 minutes after the crash.
Nor would it explain the Maui fire crew’s claim that they picked up 5 people alive, and the Coast Guard’s claim that they picked up 3 alive. That would make 8 people rescued alive plus the ninth victim - Phillip Holstein - who swam to shore and wasn’t rescued by anybody. No casualties. Was Fuddy dead or alive when she was picked up? The reports don’t agree.
Josh Lang described finding the aircraft, at http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/24246422/exclusive-pilot-describes-discovering-molokai-plane-crash . He said that he stayed around there until the Navy helicopter arrived at about 4:30pm, about an hour after he had first seen the Cessna. The pilot of the first Coast Guard helicopter to make it there noted that the Navy’s H-60 had put down smoke flares to show the location, so the Coast Guard didn’t arrive until after the H-60 arrived around 4:30. And they arrived long enough afterwards that they could not see the aircraft in the water. The aircraft had taken 25 minutes to become submerged and may have had mostly empty fuel tanks helping to keep it afloat.
Keep in mind that the first media report of a casualty was posted at 4:40pm.
Fuddy was not determined to be dead until the second rescuer, Mark Peer, found her and checked for a pulse that he didn’t find. That was the second Coast Guard helicopter and Peer found Fuddy after he had rescued a man in his 70’s. The rescue effort was complicated by there being multiple helicopters that had to be kept from hitting each other.