Nine people were killed Friday night on June 21, when a twin-engine skydiving aircraft crashed on Oahu’s North Shore shortly after takeoff and then erupted in flames. There were no survivors as all 9 passengers on board have died.
Remnants of an aircraft carrying 9 people lays on the ground near a fence that surrounds Dillingham Airfield in Mokuleia, just off Farrington Highway, Friday, June 21, 2019.
According to the Hawaii, Department of Transportation, the aircraft ― a Beechcraft 65 King Air operated by the Oahu Parachute Center ― crashed about 6:30 p.m. at the Dillingham Airfield. Of the nine killed, three were customers and six were employees.
The DOT tweeted, “With extreme sadness HDOT reports there were 9 souls on board the King Air twin-engine plane that went down near Dillingham Airfield with no apparent survivors.”
State Transportation Department officials said the FAA and NTSB will be investigating the crash.
“We are mourning this terrible tragedy,” DOT Director Jade Butay told reporters Friday night. “During this difficult time, we want to express our deepest condolences and sympathies to the families of the flight crew and passengers.”
When firefighters arrived at the airfield, they found the wreckage of the craft fully engulfed in flames. Photos from the area showed smoke from the fire could be seen from miles away.
About an hour after the crash, a somber Fire Chief Manuel Neves told reporters: “Right now, the initial report is that there were nine souls on board. There are no survivors.” He said that family members of those on board the aircraft were on the ground when the crash happened and may have seen the plane go down.
“There was a fire close to the fence line, we extinguished the fire, so luckily because it was accessible we could get to the fire right away,” Neves said. “We’re collecting information; it was a sky-dive aircraft.”
He further added, “It is very difficult. In my 40 years as a firefighter here in Hawaii, this is the most tragic aircraft incident we’ve had. We had some helicopters with the military, but this is a civilian plane with that many people on board.”
The crash is the deadliest in the U.S. for a civilian plane since nine people were killed in Akron, Ohio, in November 2015. There have been two more recent military plane crashes with at least as many casualties: a C-130 crash in Georgia in May 2018 that killed nine people and a C-130 crash in Mississippi in July 2017 that killed 16. Sixteen people were also killed in a hot air balloon accident in Texas in July 2016.
As of press time, authorities are still under investigating as to whether or not the airplane crashed during take-off or during the descent.
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