Kahului Airport - Incidents

Incidents

Aloha Airlines Flight 243

On April 28, 1988, Aloha Airlines flight 243, a Boeing 737-200 interisland flight from Hilo Airport to Honolulu International Airport carrying 89 passengers and 6 crew members experienced rapid decompression when an 18 foot section of the fuselage roof and sides were torn from the aircraft. One flight attendant was sucked out of the aircraft and died. Several passengers sustained life-threatening injuries including instances of massive head wounds. The aircraft declared an emergency and landed at Kahului Airport. Noise created by the rush of air rendered vocal communication useless, and the pilots had to use hand signals during landing.

Investigations of the disaster, headquartered at Honolulu International Airport, concluded that the accident was caused by metal fatigue. The disaster caused almost all major United States air carriers to retire their oldest aircraft models.

Aloha Island Air Flight 1712

On October 28, 1989, Aloha Island Air flight 1712, a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter aircraft, collided with mountainous terrain near Halawa Valley, Molokai, while en route on a scheduled passenger flight from Kahului Airport to Molokai Airport in Hoolehua.

The NTSB determined the cause of the accident was the airplane's controlled flight into terrain as a result of the decision of the captain to continue the flight under visual flight rules at night into instrument meteorological conditions, which obscured rising mountainous terrain.

All 20 aboard the aircraft died. Thirteen of the victims were from Molokai, including eight members of the Molokai High School boys and girls volleyball teams and two faculty members. The girls team had just qualified on Maui for the state tournament.

Hawaii Air Ambulance

On March 8, 2006, a Hawaii Air Ambulance Cessna 414 was making an approach to Runway 5 when it crashed into a BMW dealership just a mile outside of the airport. A pilot and two nurses were killed in the accident.