The National Transportation Safety Board said its investigation into Tuesday’s Kamaka Air crash that left two young Oahu pilots dead remains in its early stages, with current efforts focused on collecting airplane debris from a heavily damaged area of the building where the plane went down.
The two licensed commercial pilots — 24-year-old Hiram deFries and 26-year-old Preston Kaluhiwa — were on a training mission to Lanai when their single-turboprop Cessna Caravan lost control shortly after takeoff and crashed into an abandoned building near Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.
The building, at 3129 Ualena St., is owned by the state and was slated for demolition, Clint Johnson, chief of the NTSB’s Alaska Regional Office, said Thursday at a news conference at the site.
Both deFries and Kaluhiwa were employed by Kamaka Air, a company that has operated in Hawaii since 1993 and provides cargo services and personal charter flights across six islands.
Johnson reported that the crash caused significant damage to the stairwell leading to the roof of the building where the plane crashed.
While the rest of the structure sustained minimal impact, the heavily damaged stairwell has complicated efforts to recover aircraft debris.
Johnson emphasized that it is too early to draw any conclusions about the crash, explaining that investigators are still gathering all the pieces of the puzzle.
“We haven’t even got to the point of putting that puzzle together,” he said, noting that the team is focused on delivering a detailed and accurate investigation to determine the probable cause.
He acknowledged the work already done, including the recovery of debris from one of the wings, which had landed on the building.
The Honolulu Fire Department assisted by sending two investigators to retrieve wing parts, and the sheriff’s department provided a drone to capture aerial footage of the damage.
HPD also used two of its drones to provide a bird’s-eye view of the site, allowing investigators to assess the damage and even fly the drones inside the building.
Johnson described the drones as an invaluable tool, adding that the majority of the damage was in the stairwell leading to the roof, which has been severely compromised. The team is working to extract aircraft debris from that area.
He also explained that the flight was part of a training program, with Kaluhiwa, a senior training pilot, likely instructing deFries, who was being trained to serve as second in command.
According to Johnson, a mayday call or anomaly report was made by one of the pilots. “We do understand from the operator that the mayday call, or basically the anomaly that the crew reported, came from the instructor pilot,” Johnson said. “That’s unconfirmed at this point right now, but from the operator listening to that, they are fairly confident that that was the instructor pilot.”
Stacia Joyce, the investigator in charge, noted that meteorology reports have already been obtained to assist in the investigation. She emphasized that reassembling the airplane and conducting a thorough analysis will take months.
“We don’t want to rush the process. We don’t want to be hasty about our decisions and about the investigation, because we want to be as thorough as we possibly can,” Joyce said. “We don’t want to make any mistakes, and we don’t want to exclude any possibilities.
The aircraft involved in the crash did not have a cockpit voice recorder, commonly referred to as a black box, as it is not required for that type of plane.
However, investigators are collecting nonvolatile materials from the wreckage that might provide data about the engine, propeller and turbine system. These components will be sent to a specialized lab in Washington, D.C., where experts will analyze them for critical information.
Johnson acknowledged the tragedy of the accident but stressed that it could have been much worse.
Witnesses to the crash, as well as anyone with video or audio recordings, are encouraged to send their files to witness@ntsb.gov.
Johnson said the layout and trajectory of the airplane and its wreckage suggest a more catastrophic outcome was narrowly avoided.
