The single-engine Beech 19A plane that crashed in the Waianae Mountains above Kunia was traveling at an altitude of 2,000 feet before it disappeared from radar, according to a preliminary report by the National Transportation Safety Board.
The federal agency released the report this week as it continued its investigation on the cause of the July 28 crash that killed pilot Dean Hutton, 29, and passengers Gerrit Evensen, 28, Heather Riley, 27, and Alexis Aaron, 32. Their bodies were recovered at the wreckage near Palikea and Pohakea Pass trails the following day.
A final report on the crash is expected to be released in 12 to 18 months.
At about 6:37 p.m. July 28, the four friends departed Daniel K. Inouye International Airport on the four-seat plane for a sunset flight. According to the preliminary report, the plane was traveling at an altitude of 1,800 feet before it made “descending and climbing turns during the next 6 minutes.”
During the last minute the plane climbed, and was at 2,000 feet when it disappeared from radar. The report said the plane crashed at about 6:52 p.m.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued an alert notice shortly after 1:20 p.m. July 29 when family members reported the flight was overdue. A Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter spotted the wreckage on steep terrain at about 3 p.m. in the area where the plane was last detected.
Jahn Mueller of Aircraft Maintenance and Flight School Hawaii owned the plane. Mueller is also owner of a single-engine Piper PA298 plane that crash-landed under a Moanalua Freeway bridge June 30. Three people were seriously injured in that crash.
According to the NTSB’s preliminary report, pilot Kenta Kumakura, 20, reported the engine lost power while he and passengers Jason Torikawa-Domingo, 22, and Jueru Higa, 28, were flying at about 300 feet shortly after taking off from the airport at 1:20 p.m. Kumakura made an emergency landing in a stream bed beneath the freeway, where the plane caught fire.
NTSB Preliminary Plane Crash Report, July 2017 by Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Scribd
