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COURTESY HAWAII DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
First responders respond to an aircraft crash a few hundred feet from state property at the Lihue Airport.
A privately owned single-engine Beechcraft BE77 with two people aboard crashed just after takeoff around noon today from Lihue Airport. Kauai County officials said the two individuals sustained injuries and were transported to Wilcox Medical Center in stable but serious condition.
State Department of Transportation spokesperson Jai Cunningham said the incident occurred a few hundred feet from state property at the airport and did not cause any delays or other disruptions in commercial flights or other air traffic in and out of the Kauai airport.
According to a preliminary report from the county, first responders were dispatched to the airport shortly before 12:10 p.m. after receiving reports of an aircraft crash in the area. Cunningham said the crash happened at 12:07 p.m.
Personnel with the Lihue Fire Station, state Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting, American Medical Response and the Kauai Police Department responded to the incident.
Further details were not immediately available but Cunningham said the aircraft involved in the crash was a general aviation tenant at the Lihue Airport.
Joe Quentin, commander of the Kauai Composite Squadron of the Civil Air Patrol, said the male pilot, who was accompanied by his son, is a member of the Civil Air Patrol but that the aircraft involved in the crash is not a Civil Air Patrol plane. He said the pilot had more than 200 hours of flight time.
County officials are urging the public to avoid the area.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash, according to an FAA official.
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