LANAI CITY » Grief and relief rose as the dominant emotions Thursday in the aftermath of a charter plane crash that left three people dead and three others injured in charred grassland in central Lanai.

Two of the dead and three of the injured were Maui County employees on Lanai to attend a planning commission meeting Wednesday.

"This tragedy stunned our community," Maui Mayor Alan Ara­kawa said at a news conference late Thursday morning. "We’re a very, very small community. Everybody knows each other. We work with each other. A loss like this basically affects everyone."

Also dead in the crash of the Maui Air turboprop was the company’s co-owner and pilot, Richard "Dick" Rooney.

The twin-engine plane took off from Lanai in darkness and gusty wind shortly after 9 p.m. Wednesday and went down in fallow former pineapple fields. It apparently burst into flames on or after impact.

Firefighters put out a small brush fire ignited by the wreckage, which was fully engulfed when they arrived, officials said.

The crash proved fatal for Maui County Planning Department employees Kathleen Kern and Tre­maine Bal­berdi.

But the heroism of one man, Maui Deputy Corporation Counsel James Giroux, may have kept the toll from climbing higher.

Giroux, although seriously injured, pulled the other two survivors from the burning wreckage, according to the Maui County Fire Department.

Doug Miller, a planner on the Lanai Community Plan team, and Mark King, a geographic information systems analyst on the team, remained in critical condition Thursday at the Queen’s Medical Center.

The Fire Department said it received a 911 call at 9:23 p.m. from Giroux, who had pulled two people from the fire because they could not move on their own, according to a county news release.

Maui Deputy Corporation Counsel Moana Lutey said at the news conference her agency is proud of Giroux’s "really heroic" actions.

"We’re thankful," she said. "It’s been a rough day. Our office is somber."

Giroux issued a brief statement Thursday saying he does not have life-threatening injuries and is recovering.

The mood also was noticeably somber Thursday morning in stores and cafes lining Lanai City’s Dole Park.

"The key factor today is we’re sad," said longtime Lanai City resident Pat Reilly as he ate a sandwich at Blue Ginger Cafe. "We lost our friends. The more I talk about it, the sadder I get."

The retired school counselor said he attended the meeting Wednesday night where the planning officials discussed future growth for the island.

"We lost people who have worked very hard to design a future for Lanai, which has become even more essential with the sale of the island," Reilly said. "The loss of their talent and skills — to their families alone and to this community — there’s just a great sadness."

Alberta de Jetley, publisher and editor of the Lanai Today monthly newspaper, said she and her grandson, Russell, arrived near the site at about 9:45 p.m. Wednesday after getting a call about a possible plane crash.

"As we were coming up, we could see smoke from the aircraft," Russell deJetley said. "The fire crew had just put it out. All you could see was the emergency blue and red lights. Then we saw the three mede­vac planes coming in to the airport."

Police recovered three bodies Thursday in an area known as Miki Basin, about a mile southeast of the airport.

Maui Assistant Fire Chief Lee Mai­naga said the crash site is so remote that a contractor, Goodfellow Bros., was called in to cut a road through the field to the mangled plane.

"The grass in the area is 3 feet tall," Mai­naga said.

During the news conference in Wai­luku with other county officials late Thursday morning, Ara­kawa broke down several times trying to hold back tears.

Without naming them, he described Bal­berdi as "a bright, young planner" and Kern as a longtime career civil servant.

"We’re devastated," said Michele Mc­Lean, the county’s deputy planning director. She said there are only 64 people in the Planning Department and only 14 in the long-range division where the two women worked.

Malia Balberdi described her mother as "loving, sweet."

Mother and daughter were extremely close, living together and going to work together at the department, where Tre­maine Balberdi was a secretary for 23 years and planned on retiring in seven years. She helped get Malia a zoning inspector job at the department in 2012.

Tremaine Balberdi was also busy planning Malia’s wedding, set for April 12.

The wedding now looms as a grim reminder of her loss.

"She put so much energy into this wedding that I should have it to honor her," she said. "But then it’s not the same when your mom is supposed to help you with your dress. We had a hair appointment together."

Her mother also had a special relationship with her grandson, Malia’s son Geo­vanni.

"If it wasn’t for her, he wouldn’t be as caring," she said. "He is a very caring boy, very loving."

She added, "She was the backbone of our family."

Friends and family members gathered Thursday at the Balberdi home in Kahu­lui to console Tre­maine’s husband, George, and Malia, their only daughter.

"My wife was a very, very giving person, sweet personality," said her husband of 32 years.

George Balberdi recalled how he spoke to his wife by phone at 9:03 p.m., when she told him, "We’re about to leave. See you soon. I love you."

Balberdi headed to the commuter terminal, where he waited for his wife.

At 10 p.m. he called Malia and asked whether her mother had called.

That’s when they learned of the crash from Maui Watch, an online site.

At 1:30 a.m. Thursday they called Queen’s and asked whether there were any women admitted to the hospital from the crash.

The answer was no.

"That’s when we knew she didn’t make it," he said.

Kern was an urban designer and senior planner for Lanai. She previously worked as an urban designer for the cities of Vancouver, Canada and Seattle, and her degrees included a bachelor’s in architecture from the University of British Columbia and a Ph.D. in urban design from the University of Washington.

Arakawa said Maui Planning Director Will Spence and other members of his staff flew to Hono­lulu to comfort the three men at Queen’s. One of the victims has burns covering 25 percent of his body, a Maui official said.

The group had been on Lanai for the planning commission meeting, which was scheduled to run from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Maui County chartered a return flight on Maui Air that left at around 9:05 p.m.

Just what went wrong is unclear.

Lester Wilson, who was at a barbecue near Manele Small Boat Harbor on Wednesday night, said he heard a propeller plane taking off shortly before the time of the crash.

"I thought it was odd because it was so late," he recalled. "I know the commercial flights stop earlier, so I thought an Island Air flight was delayed. Then suddenly the sound just went away."

Wilson, who lives on Oahu but does construction work at the boat harbor during the week, said strong wind gusts would blow through the dinner gathering every 15 to 20 minutes.

"We had to hold everything down," he said. "It was like 40 mph gusts — directly north. And cold."

Investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board were headed to the scene Thursday morning, officials said. Maui police were also investigating and had taped off a debris field about 300 yards wide and 150 yards deep.

Some who saw the crash site up close said it was difficult to make out any recognizable parts of a plane. Maui police officers stood watch, preventing people from getting closer than 200 yards.

This was the second fatal plane crash in three months in Hawaii.

In December state Health Department Director Loretta Fuddy died after a Makani Kai Air Cessna Grand Caravan crashed in the ocean off Kalau­papa. Eight other people — including the pilot — survived.

The Honolulu-bound commuter plane crashed about a half-mile off Molo­kai’s north shore after taking off from Kalau­papa.