A team of National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived Sunday on Kauai to try to determine the cause of the tour helicopter crash that killed seven people on Kauai’s Na Pali Coast.
An NTSB spokesman said this weekend that the investigators were coming from Alaska and Washington, D.C. He said the NTSB planned to have an update today on the investigation.
The helicopter, operated by Safari Helicopter Tours, was flying a scenic tour of the Na Pali Coast when it failed to return Thursday. The tour company called the Coast Guard at about 6 p.m. to say the helicopter was supposed to return to Lihue about 40 minutes earlier.
A search was launched, and rescuers located the wreckage the next day, about 1.3 miles inland in a remote area of Kokee.
Police identified three of the victims Saturday: pilot Paul Matero, 69, of Wailua, and passengers Amy and Jocelyn Gannon of Madison, Wis. The remaining victims are believed to be a family from Switzerland, but they have not been identified. Police said those victims were a woman, 50, a man, 49, and two girls, ages 13 and 10.
Amy Gannon’s friend Dorecia Carr said Gannon’s death would rattle the city of Madison.
“She is very important. I mean, she owns a huge business in Madison that helps so many people,” Carr said. “The city is going to be really shaken.”
Amy Gannon, 47, co-founded a nonprofit company that helped female entrepreneurs succeed.
Edgewood College in Madison posted a statement on its Facebook page saying that the college community was “heartbroken by the loss of longtime faculty member and former Interim Dean Amy Gannon.”
“Amy was such an energetic and positive presence on our campus for many years,” said the college’s interim President Mary Ellen Gevelinger in the statement. “Her work empowering women with an entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for excellence both in and out of the classroom are her lasting legacy. Our prayers today are with her family and all who loved her.”
The college said Gannon served on its faculty for nearly 10 years and served as interim dean of the business school for two years.
Madison Metropolitan School District spokesman Tim LeMonds confirmed that Jocelyn Gannon, 13, was an eighth grader attending Hamilton Middle School.
“Our community has lost a wonderful young person,” the district said in a letter sent Saturday to students.
Madison media reported Jocelyn was a gymnast who competed at the regional level. Amy Gannon’s husband and teenage son were also in Hawaii at the time of the crash but were not on the tour.
The family of the pilot, Paul Matero, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that he had been flying helicopters for more than 40 years and moved to Hawaii about 13 years ago. He worked for the tour company for about 12 years and was its chief pilot.
Donna Dublin, Matero’s wife, said he had a high regard for safety and closely watched the weather. He planned to retire in the spring to move back with his wife to Oregon.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.