Moloka‘i Plane Crash Results in Two Fatalities

Moloka‘i firefighters located the crash site and wreckage of a small private aircraft that went down late Sunday morning, Dec. 10, 2017, 4 miles west of the Moloka‘i Airport.

Crews arrived at about noon and did not find any survivors. Two fatalities were confirmed.

Emergency crews received the call at 11:15 a.m. from the aircraft traffic control tower at Moloka‘i Airport that they had lost communications from an aircraft that would have been around 3 to 4 miles west of the airfield at last contact.

While responding to the crash site, fire crews reported low cloud ceilings and fog that dipped down to ground level while on the Maunaloa Highway. It was not raining at the time.

At 12:12 p.m. firefighters located the crash site and wreckage of a small private aircraft in a remote location 4 miles to the west of the Moloka‘i Airport.

The site is about a half-mile east of the Moloka‘i VOR, a navigational aid used by aircraft flying into the Moloka‘i Airport during times of bad weather.

Workers from Moloka‘i Ranch assisted crews by opening locked gates so firefighters could gain access to remote areas to search for the missing aircraft.

Crews used small all-terrain vehicles to reach the crash site because the heavily mudded roads from recent rains made it too difficult for larger fire trucks to pass.

The aircraft apparently caught fire and burned in the crash and firefighters had to fully extinguish areas that were still smoldering.

Firefighters and police planned to remove the bodies from the aircraft yesterday afternoon.

Moloka‘i police will secure the scene until federal investigators from the FAA and NTSB can arrive.