Another tour heli down
 

Another one down today at the Volcano National Park- pilot and 3 tourist dead.

Thanks for helping mainlanders like myself keep perspective, have not heard about it on the news.

When we were on the BI a few years ago, the driver who took us up to the Mauna Kea summit told us that those helicopter tours were potentially dangerous. He said that the gases from the volcano interfere with the internal combustion engines on the helicopters and they often crash, although not usually with fatalities. However, when I've talked about this with other people they seemed to feel that the driver was exaggerating the danger and that the helicopters were quite safe. Now, I'm not sure what to think.

islandmom
Where can we read about this?

I read it o the website for the Honolulu Star Register - don't know the web address, but you can find it on Yahoo.

Here's the link:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...copter_crash_2

How tragic, I've never heard about this here in CA. They do report the balloon accidents and crashes tho. Sympathy to all affected.........

How very sad.

Not trying to be morbid. I just think people need to be aware of the risks. Out of the thousands that fly it isn't much, but to me watching the news each year it seems to risky. Especially since I have a young child. Other people have circumstances to do extreme sports or exciting activities with more risk. I just want people to make informed choices.

A family of four from Lake Meade Pennsylvania died in the crash.

While we were in Alaska in late May, a sightseeing plane out of Talkeetna went down in the Mount McKinley area, killing the pilot and three passengers. We had thought of taking a flight, and were on our way to Talkeetna, when we heard the news on the radio. Needless to say, we did not make that trip. I've come to the conclusion that there are too many factors involved with these small planes and the risk is too great although I'm sure the views are outstanding.

An article regarding the crash can also be found at www.mauinews.com by clicking on State rather than local news. According to the article a family of three from York, Pennsylvania along with the pilot were killed after the helicopter developed an engine problem.