Rescuers Reach Crashed Helicopter

Sat., June 27, 1998

From Staff

Fighting gusting winds and enveloping clouds, rescuers on Friday reached the bodies of five of the six people aboard a tour helicopter that slammed into a remote Kauai mountainside.

Three of the victims were from Lake Oswego, Ore.

An Army paramedic was lowered to the crash site, which is 2,300 feet up Mount Waialeale and inaccessible by foot. The bodies of the pilot and two children were airlifted out, authorities said.

Kauai County Fire Chief David Sproat said Friday that heavy cloud cover and blowing winds were hampering efforts to recover the other two bodies or search for the sixth person.

Those aboard the helicopter were identified as Pauline Muse, 50; Rebecca Muse, 9; and Andrew Yang, 10, all of Lake Oswego, Ore.; John and Maxine Sipin of Ohio; and pilot Charles Lowe, of Kauai, a former military pilot. Authorities have not released Lowe’s age or the Sipins’ ages and hometown.

It appeared the Ohana Helicopters Aerostar 350 BA craft was headed “right toward the mountain” when it crashed Thursday morning while on a 50-minute tour of the Garden Isle, said Federal Aviation Administration inspector Joel Koff.

Mount Waialeale is often described as America’s wettest spot with more than 440 inches of rain a year. Its peak usually is shrouded by clouds.

“The weather was extremely bad. He probably shouldn’t have been up there, is all I can say at this point,” Koff told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.

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