PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) - Six people suffered minor injuries when a tour helicopter made a hard landing and rolled over Thursday in a remote part of Hawaii’s Big Island, officials said.
The Blue Hawaiian Helicopters aircraft carrying five passengers and a pilot crashed in a wooded, unpopulated part of the Puna district, according to a news release from the Big Island mayor’s office.
When fire crews arrived, they found the helicopter on its side in tall grass, the Hawaii County Fire Department said in a news release. All six people got out on their own and were taken to a hospital, the department said.
The helicopter was on a “Circle of Fire” tour near the Leilani Estates subdivision, said a statement from Quentin Koch, president of Blue Hawaiian Helicopters.
Leilani Estates is where lava bubbled up for months in 2018, and then spread across miles of land and destroyed more than 700 homes. The eruption of the Kilauea volcano created miles of new shoreline and filled an entire bay with molten rock.
“A Eurocopter EC130 was conducting an air tour when the aircraft experienced engine problems,” Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said in an email. The pilot made a precautionary landing and the aircraft rolled over, he said.
The helicopter had departed from Hilo International Airport, according to the FAA, which will investigate the incident.
It comes after a tour helicopter crashed in December, killing all seven people aboard on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.
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