The discovery of wreckage on eastern Molokai attested Wednesday to the fate of a missing helicopter carrying prominent Honolulu lawyer Gary Galiher and a female passenger.
Gusty winds on Tuesday night could have contributed to the fatal crash, forecasters said.
“When you’re aloft in a helicopter … it’s possible it could have been turbulence that impacted it,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Charlie Woodrum.
An experienced helicopter pilot who had a second home on Molokai, Galiher left Honolulu Airport at about 6 p.m. Tuesday in a Hughes 369D helicopter, according to his law firm partner Richard DeRobertis.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said the pilot was on visual flight rules or VFR, meaning he had no flight plan, so the time of the accident has yet to be determined.
When an employee couldn’t reach Galiher, he notified the property caretaker at Galiher’s East Molokai home, who checked the landing pad. When the helicopter wasn’t there, he called 911 at 6:55 a.m., and the Maui Fire Department and Coast Guard started a search.
Maui Fire Services Chief Edward Taomoto said the wreckage was spotted at 1:31 p.m. at the 1,400-foot elevation and rescue crews confirmed an hour later there were no survivors. He said the wreckage is seven-tenths of a mile north-northwest from Galiher’s private helipad, which is on a ridge mauka of his home.
The crash site is also about 1.3 miles mauka of 793 Kamehameha V Highway, about a half-mile north of Galiher’s property, on a remote slope thick with foliage and inaccessible by foot.
Maui police coordinated recovery of the victims and preservation of the scene for federal investigators, Taomoto said. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash, Kenitzer said.
The weather service, area residents and a fellow helicopter pilot said weather and darkness could have been factors in the crash.
The agency on Tuesday had issued an advisory for turbulence downwind of the mountains, south and west of mountain peaks across the islands. Northeasterly winds were blowing 10 to 15 mph, with 20 to 25 mph gusts at ground level, Woodrum said.
“It was windy over here and it was dark when he was coming in,” Molokai neighbor Diane Swenson said.
Fellow helicopter pilot Dr. John Corboy, who knew Galiher and also flies between Molokai and Honolulu, said the helipad is atop a ridge between two gulches.
“It sounds like a weather-related accident by a very experienced pilot,” he said, adding that it was nighttime, and a moonlit night may have encouraged him to fly at night.
“I think what happened was he was attempting to land on his helipad, which is a quarter-mile up from his house,” he said, adding that Corboy’s wife, who was at their Molokai home 6 to 8 miles away, reported gusty winds and rain with big, gray clouds.
“If the winds were gusty and there were low clouds, suddenly you’re in a cloud and you can’t see what you’re doing,” he said. “I would bet that this happened while they were trying to land or the wind blew them into the gulch.”
Corboy said there are no house lights in the area, so it’s difficult to tell whether the landing area is obscured by clouds. “If it’s daytime and your landing pad is obscured, you would pick an alternate landing place, but at night, you can’t see what the heck is going on.”
The 70-year-old lawyer was the founder and senior partner of Galiher DeRobertis Waxman, and is known nationally for representing clients in mesothelioma cases over 35 years. Mesothelioma is an asbestos-related form of cancer.
He also represented Hawaii in a multi-state lawsuit against tobacco companies.
The search Wednesday involved a Coast Guard C-130 Hercules aircraft, HH-65 Dolphin helicopter and the 87-foot cutter Kittiwake, while MFD launched its Air 1 helicopter.
Coast Guard officials confirmed that a female passenger was aboard the helicopter, along with the pilot. Police have not yet identified her.
Corboy surmised no one heard the crash, as there aren’t any neighbors nearby, and the sound gets trapped in the gulch.
Swenson, the neighbor, said of Galiher: “He had a lot of aloha for Molokai and wanted to help people on the island.”