This map depicts the location of attorney Gary Galiher’s helicopter (red pin) when it crashed in the mountains on Molokai’s East End on Nov. 15, 2016, less than a mile away from his private helipad. The National Transportation Safety Board released its factual report on the accident on Tuesday. The crash killed Galiher and passenger Keiko Kuroki. NTSB graphic

Federal investigators have found no evidence of a malfunction in the helicopter flown by Honolulu attorney Gary Galiher that crashed into a ridge above his Molokai home on the rainy and windy night of Nov. 15, 2016, according to a new report.

The National Transportation Safety Board released its factual report on Tuesday, detailing its findings on the crash that took the lives of Galiher and Realtor Keiko Kuroki.

Witnesses in Pukoo told investigators that the weather was rainy and windy on the night of the crash, and that they saw a helicopter flying low before disappearing over the ridge. The helicopter crashed at about 6:41 p.m. less than a mile away from Galiher’s home.

Galiher, the founder and senior partner of Galiher DeRobertis Waxman, was an experienced pilot who flew from Oahu to Molokai about every other week, often after work at night, according to his personal assistant.

On the night of Nov. 15, 2016, he was planning to fly Kuroki to Molokai, Galiher’s mechanic told investigators. Galiher’s home was located on the southeast side of Kamakou Mountain. The flight distance was about 75 miles and was expected to take about 30 minutes.

The mechanic said he advised Galiher not to fly given the weather conditions, but Galiher insisted on taking the trip because he had to tend to business. At about 5:30 p.m., the mechanic texted the caretaker at Galiher’s home on Molokai to ask about the weather.

“Mountain is a little wet and the clouds are low out east near the house,” the caretaker replied, but by then, Galiher and Kuroki had already departed from from Daniel K. Inouye International Airport at 5:56 p.m.

At 6:23 p.m., Galiher reported that they were “2 miles southwest of the mudflats 1 mile offshore at 700 feet transition to the east,” according to archived FAA voice communications from the Molokai air traffic control tower in Kualapuu. The helicopter’s last reported position was about 20 miles from its destination.

Weather conditions that evening included scattered clouds, wind speeds of 16 mph, rain showers and visibility of 10 miles. A search of official weather briefing sources indicated that Galiher hadn’t requested an official weather briefing, though his mechanic said he normally checked the Molokai radar images on the National Weather Service website before flying to Pukoo.

Witnesses who lived about a mile southwest of the helipad saw the helicopter flying “surprisingly low” and slow over their property with its searchlight on. One of the witnesses recognized the helicopter because she was used to seeing it fly over the property and recalled that Galiher had flown in “horrific conditions” before. As the helicopter passed by, the witness snapped a photo on her iPhone at 6:36 p.m., showing the aircraft flying in dark night conditions.

About 0.2 mile east of Galiher’s home, another witness saw the helicopter perform a controlled approach to the ridgeline above her house before descending behind the terrain and disappearing from view. She saw a bright orange illumination in the clouds sometime after that. The weather that night, she said, was “as bad as I’ve ever seen.”

Investigators pinpointed the time of the crash at 6:41 p.m., the same time that Galiher’s watch, which was recovered from the scene, stopped ticking. The helicopter went down in mountainous tree-covered terrain about three-quarters of a mile north of Galiher’s private helipad.

When Galiher failed to respond to phone calls and didn’t show up at his home, the U.S. Coast Guard and Maui Police Department launched a search of land and sea the next morning. At 1:31 p.m. on Nov. 16, 2016, a Maui fire and rescue helicopter crew discovered the burned wreckage.

Neither pilot nor passenger survived.

The impact and post-crash fire destroyed the helicopter, but investigators were able to find all major components. The landing skids hit the ground first, and the chopper’s left skid was found imbedded almost 30 inches into the dirt. Two of the five main rotor blades were still attached.

The NTSB and Boeing, along with MD Helicopters (which held the helicopter’s type certificate) and Rolls-Royce (which manufactured the engine), examined the wreckage at a secure hangar at Kahului Airport. They found no evidence of a mechanical anomaly or malfunction that would have impacted the helicopter’s operation.

The helicopter, a turbine-powered Hughes 369D, was built in 1979 and last underwent annual inspection on Sept. 17, 2016.

Galiher, 70, held an airline transport pilot certificate with a rotorcraft-helicopter rating issued on Dec. 29, 2009. He also held a commercial pilot certificate with airplane multi-engine land and instrumenting airplane ratings and a private pilot certificate with an airplane single-engine land and sea rating.

His most recent FAA third-class medical certificate was issued on May 17, 2016. At the time, Galiher had reported 4,210.7 hours of total flight experience, 45.2 of which were within the last six months.

Investigators could not find Galiher’s logbook and thus could not determine his instrument and night flight experience and the number of hours he’d logged in the type of helicopter he was piloting.

As an attorney, Galiher had specialized in personal injury cases, and his firm became known for representing clients in mesothelioma and asbestos cases.

Kuroki had been a real estate agent for Locations LLC Diamondhead on Oahu since 2005 and was originally from Japan, according to a Honolulu Star-Advertiser story at the time.

* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.