First Schuman said the pilot hadn’t put in a Mayday call, then the pilot said he had.
The nearest Coast Guard station is Station Molokai, roughly 30 miles away. But I’m not sure if they have a helicopter. The next-closest is in Honolulu at Diamond Point. With the HC-130 it’s a 10-minute flight; with the helicopters it’s a 15-minute flight, at top cruising speeds.
As far as we know, Puentes (the guy who took the photos) wasn’t there to protect Fuddy, but Fuddy’s deputy health director, Keith Yamamoto, was there.
It sounds like the emergency personnel were intentionally delayed.
Shoot. I biffed that one. Not Molokia; it should have been Station Maui. And in Honolulu the Coast Guard station isn’t at Diamond Point but Barber’s Point. Diamond Point is where the H-60 that Miller said was doing “touch and goes” is stationed out of.
Too much fuzz in my brain on the technical stuff that I’ve just newly learned. I’m glad Jack looked it up and got it right.