The report by the National Transportation Safety Board confirms what many suspected about the 2013 plane crash that killed the state health director: Some very basic precautions might have improved the odds of survival.

And, especially in an island state where small-craft touring is a large part of the visitor industry, basic precautions such as a safety briefing must be treated as a compulsory part of any flight.

The pilot of the Makani Kai Air Cessna 208B put down the nine-passenger plane on Dec. 11, 2013, after hearing a loud bang and witnessing a loss of engine power, according to the report.

The occupants of the plane, which crashed in the open ocean off Molokai, escaped the plane.

However, Loretta Fuddy, then-director of the state Department of Health, died of acute cardiac arrhythmia due to hyperventilation, according to the report, which added that she exited into the ocean wearing what was later determined to be an infant’s life vest.

Clearly, the passengers were unprepared to cope with this extreme trauma: Several of them told the NTSB that the pilot, then 60, did not give them the safety briefing before takeoff as required under federal law.

Further, Fuddy’s life vest had only a single functioning carbon dioxide canister; the second canister was punctured and empty, according to the report.

The report also describes a feverish scramble for life vests: Keith Yamamoto, the department’s deputy director, told investigators he had to ask other passengers where they were located.

The pilot himself, who had hit his head upon impact and was bleeding, looked around for the life vests, found one and handed it to a passenger as the cabin was filling with water.

Terror and even pandemonium are all but impossible to ward off in these circumstances, but the lack of preparedness certainly didn’t help ease the escape.

According to the NTSB report, a safety briefing had been given on the flight from Honolulu that morning but not on the accident flight. Passengers told the agency that the pilot assigned them seats “but did not provide a safety briefing prior to the flight.

“The pilot asked them how many of them had flown over that morning, and then said, ‘You know the procedures,’” according to the report.

That is a lapse that is simply inexcusable.

Every year, the NTSB investigates about 1,500 general aviation accidents. The most recent compilation of data, for 2014, tallied 1,221 accidents in which 419 people died.

One of the agency’s “safety alerts” posted on its website states: “Sadly, the circumstances of each new accident are often remarkably similar to those of previous accidents.

“This suggests that some pilots are not taking advantage of the lessons learned from such tragedies that could help them avoid making the same mistakes.”

In Hawaii, the aviation industry must be held to high standards, ensuring that those responsible for passenger safety are trained in proper pre-flight procedures.

That’s the lesson, plain and painful, to be learned from this tragic episode.