The first USCG rescue swimmer that came upon her, left her for "obviously dead," as his protocol allowed for no other circumstance under which he could leave "her" in the water. Three minutes later a Honolulu TV station reported that a person had died in the crash aftermath.
Forty minutes later another USCG rescue swimmer came upon "her" and hoisted "her" up. On the way back to the airport, that helo's rescue team declared "her" condition to be "critail." (sic, read 'critical').
As "Fuddy's" Deputy Director held her had, he was visited by a person/diver/device that I believe held A/V equipment to communicate with the scenario planning team.
In sum, with all the James Bond equipment and divers swirling about "her" we'd have to say the crew would have been 100% incompetent to let her die. All the people at the scene were in on the Valhalla exit and Hollywood had every motivation to "get it right."
I twice interviewed one of the passengers. He had "coincidentally" written a murder mystery centered on the island of Molokai, where the Kalaupapa airport is. He dropped several pieces of misinformation in his breezy account of the crash and rescue. He's done likewise in a few media interviews and stories. He referred to our account as "Poppycock." We imagined he was referring to the classified US Navy Underwater Demolition Fransport Vehicle that became unbalanced and slapped up against the side of the airplane while supposedly no one was near the plane, so we now call that "Poppycock" in his "honor."
