Former Island Air employees will get about $35,000 of their misdirected 401(k) contributions restored to their accounts.

When they actually can access that money and the rest of their retirement fund is another matter.

Bankruptcy Judge Robert Faris on Monday approved a motion by the Chapter 7 trustee to divert $35,769 in employee 401(k) funds to Massachusetts Mutual, custodian of the plan. Taken out of the employees’ final October paycheck, the money mistakenly had been placed by Island Air into a company tax account.

The employees, though, still don’t have access to their 401(k) fund because it was self-administered by the company and all the individuals who had authorization to administer the account were laid off. Trustee Elizabeth Kane and her attorney, Simon Klevansky, have told the court they are hopeful they can get a former Island Air employee with 401(k) administrative access to help.

The motion said that $3,133 of the misdirected funds were employee loan payments that became delinquent because of Island Air’s mistake.

Last week Faris set a court date for 10:30 a.m. Dec. 19 to dismiss the bankruptcy — at the trustee’s request — because the trustee said there are no funds available to administer the case.

In the meantime, Klevansky said the trustee is using the time prior to that date to try to resolve the 401(k) issue as well as see if a deal can be made with prospective buyers for the airline’s operating certificate.