2 girls learning to fly are hurt in Mokuleia plane crash

Two teenage girls learning to fly were seriously injured after the small single-engine plane they were in crashed in brush just off Dillingham Airfield in Mokuleia.

Police said the local student pilots were flying with flight instructor Victor Bonfiglio when the 1969 Piper PA-28-140 crash-landed in property adjacent to the airfield.

One girl hit her head, and the back-seat passenger sustained some scrapes. They were taken to The Queen’s Medical Center, police said. The pilot received minor injuries and declined treatment.

Emergency Medical Serv­ices spokeswoman Shayne Enright said paramedics treated two 17-year-old girls and took them in serious condition to a hospital.

The plane, tail number N98146, appears totaled and is owned by Alana Aviation, police said.

The crash occurred at about 5:10 p.m. when the pilot was practicing “touch-and-goes,” Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said in an email.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, he said.

Sonny Vaoifi, 45, works for the owner of the adjoining property, where the plane ended up, and witnessed the crash.

“It was coming down the runway and was taking off. It had engine trouble and ended up right there,” he said, pointing to the small plane.

“It started to sputter and had no power at all,” he said.

Rather than continue to ascend, it turned right, made it over a chain-link fence and crashed into a plastic barrier, dragging it several feet, and ended up in some brush.

Vaoifi said he rushed over. “I made sure they’re OK,” he said.

He said he found an older gentleman, the pilot, in his 60s, and two high school-age girls.

They were “shaken, with cuts and bruises, but they walked away,” he said.