Kauai trail reopens after copter accident

The Kalalau Trail in Napali Coast State Wilderness Park on Kauai will reopen to hikers and campers today, two days after a helicopter crashed at Kalalau Beach during a cleanup operation, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources announced.

The National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration released the site Friday after the conclusion of a crash investigation, allowing the helicopter’s owner, Airborne Aviation, to recover the aircraft.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday that a tarp caused damage to a helicopter’s rotor blades after landing on Kauai’s remote Kalalau Beach Wednesday.

The pilot was uninjured, but the two passengers who were DLNR employees, suffered minor injuries, Airborne Aviation’s co-owner said.

The Hughes 369 helicopter, tail number N519PA, had landed at about 1:45 p.m. when a tarp on the ground blew into the rotor blades, damaging the aircraft, the FAA said.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are investigating the incident.

Alarm sirens mistakenly go off on 3 islands

An insect infestation apparently caused Civil Defense sirens to sound at 1:18 a.m. Friday in Pearl City, while a mechanical problem probably caused 14 other sirens on Maui and Molokai to sound at 2:15 a.m., state Civil Defense officials said in a news release.

“We regret the disturbance and any anxiety caused by the unintentional sounding of the siren in Pearl City and the sirens on Maui and Molokai this morning,” Doug Mayne, the vice director of Civil Defense, said in a news release.

“I would like to assure the public that the emergency siren activation will not happen without an accompanying Emergency Alert System message.”

The Pearl City siren and four sirens in Maui County were fixed and are operational. The other 10 sirens will be fixed next week, officials said.

The control boards on the older mechanical sirens in Maui County were improperly set up, officials said. The improper setup apparently caused the sirens to sound for a short period when a cancellation command was sent through the system.

Road restriping set in Lihue

The Kauai Department of Public Works on Wednesday will start restriping Rice Street in Lihue and painting the curb to prohibit parking from the Bank of Hawaii to the PS& D Napa Auto Parts store.

The work will be done on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The project is expected to be completed by Oct. 2.