Pilot in helicopter crash seemed lost, report says
COURTESY PHOTO
Gary Galiher: The personal injury attorney died after the helicopter he was piloting crashed.
Witnesses who saw a helicopter before it crashed last month on Molokai told federal accident investigators that it looked like the pilot was lost during dark and rainy conditions.
Well-known Honolulu personal injury attorney Gary Galiher was flying his helicopter from Honolulu to a helipad at his east Molokai home Nov. 15.
Rescuers found the charred wreckage the next day on a remote mountain slope. Galiher and his female passenger were killed.
A National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report released Wednesday says residents near the crash site reported seeing the helicopter flying low and slowly.
The report says there was low visibility with heavy rain at the time.
The report says the pilot was experienced and often departed from his hangar at Honolulu Airport in the evenings after work.
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2 responses to “Pilot in helicopter crash seemed lost, report says”
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tragic that he flew into those conditions
“…residents near the crash site reported seeing the helicopter flying low and slowly.” Well, that’s usually how an aircraft flies when approaching a landing, and it doesn’t necessarily mean he’s lost or disoriented. He was less than a mile from his destination. Just because he was “low and slow” doesn’t mean he was lost. I’m sure his head was buried in his GPS and he was trying to fly the cursor to his helipad.