Engine of Makani Kai plane headed for NTSB exam
The wreckage of the Makani Kai Air plane that ditched in the ocean off Kalaupapa Dec. 11 was brought to Honolulu Harbor.
The wreckage of the Makani Kai Air plane that ditched in the ocean off Kalaupapa on Dec. 11 was brought to Honolulu Harbor Wednesday.
Much of the damage to the body of the aircraft is a result of battering waves as the plane sank.
The wreckage of a plane that crashed off Molokai was brought to Honolulu Harbor on Wednesday.
Makani Kai Air owner Richard Schuman said a salvage dive team was able to recover the plane’s single engine.
The engine lost power soon after the plane took off from Kalaupapa on Dec. 11. State Health Director Loretta Fuddy was the only fatality of the nine of the plane’s passengers.
Schuman says the wreckage and the engine arrived in Honolulu on a ship Wednesday night.
He says the engine will be transported to a factory run by the engine’s manufacturer, where the National Transportation Safety Board will determine what caused it to fail.
The NTSB initially believed the plane couldn’t be recovered, but it was spotted off the north shore of Molokai.
No autopsy results have been released on the cause of Fuddy’s death. She was able to make it out of the plane after it crashed, witnesses said.
