Photo Galley: Downtown helicopter crash

A helicopter pilot and her passenger walked away from a crash landing on a busy downtown street Wednesday afternoon, and no pedestrians or drivers were injured.

People stared in disbelief and snapped photos of the small orange helicopter, its rotor blades bent, surrounded by broken glass and debris, next to a parked Mazda sedan with no windshield and a bashed roof and hood.

Pacific Heights resident Patti Hookano had a close encounter. She said she had just driven her white BMW out of the Pali Longs-Safeway parking lot and onto Fort Street when the helicopter flew by her vehicle.

"It went in front of me as I was pulling out," said Hookano, 51. As she turned onto the street, she saw the copter on the ground "like it was driving down the street."

Hookano said she pulled to the side of the road, looked again and saw the aircraft had come to a stop.

Honolulu Fire Department spokesman Capt. Terry Seelig said the pilot, Julia Link, 30, had taken her passenger, Karl Hedberg, 71, on a photography tour when the copter had engine trouble while over Punchbowl.

A representative of the helicopter company, Mauna Loa Helicopters, described it as "an auto-rotating hard landing," Seelig said.

Link managed to fly the aircraft to Fort Street, hit the pavement and skidded 200 feet makai toward Beretania Street near a bus stop and about 100 feet from the intersection, fire officials said.

Seelig noted the area is very busy, with Hawaii Pacific University across the street and a bus stop and a high-rise condo building, Kukui Plaza, nearby.

"We’re very, very grateful that there was a fortunate landing that did not injure anybody outside the helicopter," Seelig said.

He praised Link for getting the chopper down safely, although with "significant damage to the bird."

Firefighters from a station next to the accident scene arrived quickly, as did Emergency Medical Services crews and police, who shut down portions of Fort and Beretania streets.

Emergency Services spokeswoman Shayne Enright said it was incredible that no one was injured in the 3:20 p.m. crash.

"You hear ‘helicopter down,’ your heart just sinks," she said. "You just don’t know how bad the scene is going to be."

Link was not injured, but was shaken, and the passenger, a local man, had a small cut on his head, but no one went to the hospital, she said.

Link told KITV-4 she was flying at 3,000 feet over Punchbowl when the aircraft went quiet, the engine quit and a warning horn went off. She went into auto-rotation, a maneuver that keeps the copter in control as it descends. It was apparently still moving forward as it hit the street.

"That car got us on the final skid," Hedberg told KITV.

The 2012 Mazda6 was badly damaged, and its owner, a Hawaii Pacific University student, said he had difficulty explaining to his father what happened.

"‘Dad, I parked my car on the street and a helicopter landed on it,’" Matthew Lau, 28, told his father on the phone. "It was very random."

Lau was taking his last final exam and came out to find the car, which he saved up for during three tours of duty in Iraq as a Hawaii Army National Guardsman, a wreck.

Passer-by Eddie Merc was going to a dental appointment when he saw the chopper going down.

"I though they were cutting trees, and thought, ‘This is unusual. They’re falling down.’ I thought it was a red crane on top of the palm trees.’

He saw firefighters come out of the station "asking people to stay away because they thought it was going to explode."

Federal Aviation Administration investigators were on scene later Wednesday, inspecting the wreckage, as were Mauna Loa Helicopters representatives.

According to her LinkedIn page, Link has worked for Mauna Loa Helicopters Hono­lulu since June.

According to the FAA registry, the helicopter with tail number "N5ZK" is owned by HLM Aviation Services Inc., whose agent is Benjamin Fouts. Fouts is listed as the president of Mauna Loa Helicopters, a business that has a training school in Kailua-Kona and Honolulu.

Fouts and Mauna Loa Helicopters were unavailable for comment.

The helicopter is an R22 Beta manufactured by Robinson Helicopter.

Scott Weidel, a registered nurse, said he saw the chopper descending and got there ahead of emergency personnel to render aid. He said he saw another man ahead of him "literally rip the door off, and exhibited almost superhuman strength" to get out the occupants.

Barbara Manzano, 71, a 28-year downtown resident said it was "a miracle" that nobody was hurt.

"God was with that lady (pilot) and everybody around here."

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Star-Advertiser reporters Gordon Y.K. Pang and Gary T. Kubota contributed to this report.