Mahalo for supporting Honolulu Star-Advertiser. Enjoy this free story!
The three survivors of Wednesday night’s fatal plane crash on Lanai remained hospitalized at the Queen’s Medical Center on Friday.
Maui County and hospital officials said there were no updates on the conditions of the three men — all Maui County employees — as of Friday night.
James Giroux, a deputy corporation counsel, was last listed in serious condition.
Douglas Miller, a planner with the county Department of Planning, and Mark King, a geographic information systems analyst in the department, sustained critical injuries in the crash.
Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa has said the men suffered second- and third-degree burns to their faces and hands.
Wailuku attorney Kirstin Hamman, Giroux’s ex-wife, flew in to Honolulu on Friday afternoon and brought their two children to visit their father at the hospital.
"They talked to him on the phone this morning, and they’re excited to see him," she said.
Giroux is credited with pulling his two colleagues out of the burning wreckage before calling 911 to report the crash at 9:23 p.m.
Giroux issued a short statement Thursday evening to let family and friends know he did not suffer life-threatening injuries and is recovering.
The county had chartered a return flight on Maui Air following a Lanai Planning Commission meeting Wednesday night, which was scheduled to finish at 8:30, about a half-hour after the last commercial flight out of Lanai.
The twin-engine plane went down shortly after takeoff in an area known as Miki Basin, about a mile southeast of the Lanai Airport, in former pineapple fields overgrown with tall grass and thick brush.
Two other Maui Planning Department employees, Kathleen Kern, 50, and Tremaine Balberdi, 53, died in the crash. Pilot Richard "Dick" Rooney, co-owner of the charter company, also died.
Kern’s brother said his sister’s death still seems surreal.
"It hasn’t really sunk in totally," said Dr. Kenneth Kern, a retired physician who resides in Honolulu.
He said he found out about the crash from his sister-in-law who is vacationing in Waimea. She spoke to Kathleen Kern, who told her Tuesday or Wednesday that she was heading to a meeting on Lanai and was to return Wednesday night.
Soon after the sister-in-law heard about the plane crash, she called Kern’s brother at about midnight, fearing Kern was aboard the downed charter. At 2:30 a.m. he received a call from Kern’s boss, who told him his sister was one of the three people who died in the crash.
Kenneth Kern said his sister often worked long hours because she was passionate about urban planning.
"She had a particular interest in the process of planning and the involvement of the community in that process," he said in an email statement.
Born in Vancouver, Kathleen Kern, 50, fell in love with Hawaii as a child when she regularly visited the islands with her parents. Her dream to make Hawaii her home was realized when she moved to Maui in 2009 and started working for the planning department.
"She really liked her job and living in Hawaii," her brother said.
When away from the planning department, she enjoyed biking and swimming, participating in the Maui Channel Swim.
Before moving to Maui, Kern had traveled there every year since the early 1980s with her parents, who owned an on-island condominium.
Balberdi was a secretary for 23 years and planned on retiring in seven years. "She just loved what she did," said her husband, George Balberdi.
He recalled Thursday how he spoke to his wife by phone at 9:03 p.m., when she told him, "We’re about to leave. See you soon. I love you."
Relatives of Rooney could not be reached for comment Friday.
Attempts to reach anyone at Maui Air’s Kahului offices also were unsuccessful.
72
ASSOCIATED PRESS