Malfunction forces pilot to ditch in Keehi Lagoon

A 68-year-old Australian pilot with some four decades of flying experience safely ditched a small plane in waters off Lagoon Drive at Honolulu Airport on Tuesday.

“He’s in great condition,” said Mark Jones, a friend of the pilot and the owner of the aircraft, a Cessna 337 Skymaster — a two-engine light aircraft built in 1980.

The pilot, the only person aboard the four-person plane, performed an emergency water landing shortly before 2 p.m. at the airport’s seaplane waterway, which runs parallel to Lagoon Drive, Department of Transportation spokesman Tim Sakahara said.

Honolulu Fire Department Capt. David Jenkins said, “The pilot self-extricated and was on the rescue craft within seconds.”

Emergency Medical Service paramedics examined the pilot, who was not injured in the incident.

The pilot had departed from Honolulu Airport at 11:55 a.m. for John Rodgers Field in Kalaeloa, where he intended to perform practice approaches, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

He realized he had a landing gear problem shortly after takeoff and wanted to return to the airport but could not lower the gear, the FAA said. At about 12:15 p.m. he declared an emergency with the Honolulu Airport tower, Jenkins said.

HFD personnel happened to be training in the area at Keehi Lagoon when they received a call about the intended water landing in Keehi Lagoon.

“Fortunately, we had two watercraft already in Keehi Lagoon doing training,” as well as a rescue company on the scene, Jenkins said.

In addition to HFD, the state Fire Department, Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting (ARFF), EMS and the Coast Guard then stood by while the pilot circled for roughly two hours, burning off fuel and deciding where to land.

The pilot, who asked authorities to withhold release of his name until he spoke to his wife, had attempted backup procedures to release the landing gear without success, Jones said. Aside from the landing gear problem, he said, the plane was “perfectly flyable.”

“He felt the safest was landing in the water,” Jones said. As for the landing, “Everybody said it was superb — a great water landing,” he added.

Jones is working with his insurance company to recover and salvage his plane, and he said divers will go out today to determine how best to quickly remove it to minimize harm to the environment.

The Cessna had its annual safety check, and had been looked at in the last week or so for minor maintenance, he said. “Everything looked good at the time,” Jones said.