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Air cargo plane crashes on Molokai

Two people were injured in the crash early Monday

A single-engine Cessna 208 owned by Kamaka Air crashed while on approach to Molokai Airport early Monday morning, authorities said. Two pilots on the plane were injured. Photo courtesy of Lynn DeCoite

Two people were injured early Monday morning as a single-engine Cessna 208 owned by Kamaka Air crashed while on approach to Molokai Airport, authorities said.

The two occupants of the aircraft were transported by medical personnel to a hospital for further treatment, said a police spokeswoman.

Molokai dispatch received a call of a downed aircraft about a mile or two just outside of Molokai Airport at 5:11 a.m., police said.

The National Transportation Safety Board is the lead agency for the incident, police added.

NTSB officials could not immediately be reached for comment Monday afternoon on the incident or the condition of the victims.

In a statement, state Sen. Lynn DeCoite, a Molokai resident and whose district includes the island, commended the Molokai emergency personnel who “swiftly responded to the incident.”

She said that Kamaka Air, an air cargo service, “is a lifeline for our Molokai community.”

DeCoite said she will work closely with the company and other agencies “to evaluate this situation with hopes that we can prevent another incident like this from happening again.”

“My thoughts and prayers are with the two individuals injured in this morning’s devastating incident,” DeCoite said.

She added that after learning about the crash she drove to the site to assess the situation which she estimated about a mile away from the airport.

DeCoite said the two personnel on board were pilots and are from Oahu. They also had flown the route before.

They were treated initially on Molokai but by Monday night were being treated on Oahu, she said.

DeCoite said the cargo has been removed from the plane.

She also asked that the public stay away from the area of the crash as that is private property. DeCoite said there is also “night management activity” of deer on the property.

A employee at Kamaka Air said he could not give out any information. He said the company’s president was on Molokai Monday afternoon.

There were no impact to airport operations, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Transportation said.

An Aircraft Rescue Fire Fighter unit responded along with Maui County fire personnel, the spokesperson said.

The incident comes a little more than a month since a fatal plane crash Dec. 15, when a Hawaii Life Flight crashed in the ocean near Kaupo, killing the pilot, a flight paramedic and a flight nurse.

The medical transport flight was going from Kahului Airport to Waimea on Hawaii island to pick up a patient.

Last week, the NTSB announced that the wreckage of the plane had been recovered.

The aircraft was to be transported to a secure location in Hawaii for further examination, the NTSB said.

The airplane’s cockpit voice recorder, the cockpit image recorder and other electronic components will be transported to the NTSB laboratory in Washington, D.C.

The investigation is expected to be completed in 12 to 24 months, the NTSB said.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.

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