Officials identify 4 people killed in Kauai helicopter crash
PENNY HAIDER VIA AP
A Nov. 28 photo provided by Penny Haider shows Matthew Haider, a mechanic who was among four people who died in a helicopter crash off Kauai.
COURTESY LINDSIE FRATUS-THOMAS
Smoke rose Tuesday from the site of a fatal helicopter crash at the north end of the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai.
The four crew members killed in Tuesday’s deadly helicopter crash on Kauai have been identified.
Croman Corp., an Oregon-based helicopter company that operated the helicopter, identified the crash victims as:
>> Daniel Maurice, 64, chief pilot, check airman and FAA-designated pilot examiner
>> Patrick Rader, 55, command pilot and check airman
>> Erika Tevez-Valdez, 42, mechanic and aircrew
>> Matthew Haider, 43, mechanic and aircrew
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Maurice resided in Lyle, Wash., and Rader, Tevez-Valdez and Haider resided on Kauai. All crew members were employees of Croman Corp.
>> RELATED: 4 killed in Kauai helicopter crash
The Pacific Missile Range Facility’s emergency personnel as well as Kauai firefighters responded to the crash on the northern area of the installation shortly after 10 a.m. Tuesday.
The Sikorsky S-61N helicopter was conducting routine training operations at the time of the crash, according to the helicopter company.
Chris Turner, owner and captain of Na Pali Riders, a company that offers Zodiac inflatable boat tours along the Na Pali Coast, witnessed the crash.
Turner was heading back to Kikialoa Harbor when he watched the helicopter lower items on the north end of the runway at the military airport at Barking Sands. The helicopter was about 1,000 feet above the airstrip when it “erratically” made a sharp turn to the right and went nose down at an accelerated rate, he said.
Approximately 15 people on the tour boat saw a large plume of billowing black smoke immediately after the crash.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board are expected to arrive on Kauai tonight. Representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration, the Navy and Croman Corp. are also expected to arrive today.
The helicopter company has provided air support services at the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility since 2007.
Grief-stricken over her husband’s death, Haider’s wife, Roxanne Fox, said, “This is a nightmare come true.”
“He had the biggest heart of anybody I’ve ever met,” Fox said as she cried in anguish during a phone interview from Kauai.
Haider and Fox have been together since 2012 and married in 2018.
He was an amazing father to his two teenage sons from a previous marriage and a hard worker.
Fox further described him as a man with a youthful spirit who enjoyed playing basketball and listening to classic rock.
Fox noted Haider and Tevez-Valdez were good friends who supported one another. They had each other’s backs, she said.
