Hawaii helicopter crash that killed 7 was '100% preventable'

Federal accident investigators are blaming a deadly Hawaii helicopter crash on the pilot’s decision to keep flying into worsening weather

Federal investigators blamed a deadly 2019 helicopter crash in Hawaii on the pilot’s decision to keep flying into worsening weather, and in a report Tuesday they accused regulators of lax oversight of air tours that are popular among tourists to the islands.

The National Transportation Safety Board said that the Federal Aviation Administration had delayed installing aviation weather cameras that might have alerted the pilot to the fog-shrouded conditions in a mountainous region on the island of Kauai. The board also said the FAA failed to do enough to ensure that tour pilots in Hawaii are trained in handling bad weather.

Safety board Chair Jennifer Homendy said some will be quick to single out the pilot for causing the crash, which killed all seven people on board, but that she was trouble more by the FAA’s role.

“The fact is that this tragedy should never have occurred. It was 100% preventable,” Homendy said. “There was minimal FAA oversight of the safety of air tour operations in Hawaii. The FAA should be leading on safety, not ceding their responsibility to the industry that they are charged with regulating.”