Victims of Kauai helicopter crash identified

Matthew Haider and fellow mechanic and aircrew member Erika Tevez-Valdez were remembered Wednesday as friends who had each other’s backs.

Haider, 43, Tevez-Valdez, 42, Daniel Maurice, 64, and Patrick Rader, 55, were killed in Tuesday’s deadly helicopter crash on Kauai.

Croman Corp., an Oregon- based helicopter company, said Maurice was chief pilot, check airman and FAA- designated pilot examiner; Rader was command pilot and check airman; while Tevez-Valdez and Haider served on the aircrew as mechanics.

Maurice resided in Lyle, Wash., and Rader, Tevez- Valdez and Haider lived on Kauai.

Grief-stricken over her husband’s death, Haider’s wife, Roxanne Fox, said, “This is a nightmare come true.”

“He had the biggest heart of anybody I’ve ever met,” Fox said as she cried in anguish during a phone interview from Kauai.

Haider and Fox have been together since 2012 and married in 2018.

Fox said Haider was an amazing father to his two teenage sons from a previous marriage and a hard worker. Fox further described him as a man with a youthful spirit who enjoyed playing basketball and listening to classic rock. He loved music, his wife said, noting their collection of 150 albums.

Fox also noted that Haider and Tevez-Valdez, his fellow crew member, were good friends who supported one another. They had each other’s backs, she said.

Haider had previously worked as a boat captain at UFO Parasail, a tour company in Hawaii island and Maui.

The Pacific Missile Range Facility’s emergency personnel as well as Kauai firefighters responded to the crash on the northern area of the installation shortly after 10 a.m. Tuesday.

The Sikorsky S-61N helicopter was supporting routine training operations at the time of the crash, according to the helicopter company.

“This tragedy is under investigation so there aren’t any details to share at this point,” said range facility spokesman Thomas Clements. “The flight was in support of a training operation. Range support can include observation, transport and target recovery.”

Chris Turner, owner and captain of Na Pali Riders, a company that offers Zodiac inflatable boat tours along the Na Pali Coast, witnessed the crash.

Turner was heading back to Kikiaola Harbor when he watched the helicopter lower items on the north end of the runway at the military airport at Barking Sands. When the helicopter was about 1,000 feet above the airstrip, it “erratically” made a sharp turn to the right and went nose down at an accelerated rate.

Approximately 15 people on the tour boat saw a large plume of billowing black smoke immediately after the crash.

Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board were to arrive Wednesday night in Kauai. Representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration, Navy and Croman Corp. also were expected to arrive.

Croman Corp. has provided air support services at the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility since 2007.