Her Japanese-American assistant was dressed in swimming trunks for the flight. HHHHHHMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.
I assume that you have never lived in Hawaii. Swimming trunks are worn to births, baptisms, weddings, funerals, and everything else in between.
I vaguely recall that I read that there was something odd about the flight...perhaps they were called at the last minute and told to get ready to fly back or something. The reason they’d gone to Molokai was for a short trip (a dedication of something, IIRC).
In any case, people in Hawaii seem to wear swim clothing all the time, something a mainlander like me found a little strange, so that may not mean much.
But I’ve flown out of Molokai from that very place, where tourist flights go out all the time, and the pilots are very careful and very experienced. It’s a scary landing and a scary take-off. But I think they’ve had an incredibly good safety record up to now, when the engine “inexplicably” stalled.