An air ambulance that crashed into waters near Maui last month was recovered on Tuesday from depths of 6,420 feet, according to a National Transportation Safety Board release. 

What You Need To Know

  • A small air ambulance operated by Hawaii Life Flight crashed on Dec. 15 in waters near Maui, killing all three passengers on board
  • Guardian Flight, the parent company of Hawaii Life Flight, contracted a search vessel to find the flight crew and wreckage

  • The search started on Jan. 8 in an area that was 54 square miles at depths ranging from 4,500 to 7,500 feet

  • The next day, a ping was detected from an acoustic beacon installed on the cockpit voice recorder

A Raytheon Aircraft Company C90A, twin-engine, turbine-powered airplane operated by Hawaii Life Flight went down on Dec. 15, 2022, after it lost radio contact at 9:27 p.m.

Hawaii Life Flight is a company that transports patients between islands when they are critically ill and in need of a comprehensive hospital. 

The crash killed all three passengers — a pilot, flight paramedic and flight nurse — who were on board.

The air ambulance was on its way to pick up a passenger on Hawaii Island.

Guardian Flight, the parent company of Hawaii Life Flight, contracted a search vessel to find the flight crew and wreckage in the deep sea. 

The MV Island Pride, operated by Ocean Infinity, started searching for the missing wreckage on Jan. 8. Aboard the ship was the NTSB investigator-in-charge, the Chief of the NTSB Office of Transportation Disaster Assistance, the Director of Safety for Guardian Flight and a project manager with experience in over-water loss recoveries. 

Across an area that was 54 square miles at depths ranging from 4,500 to 7,500 feet, the search used a side-scan and multi-beam sonar, autonomous underwater vehicles and a remotely operated vehicle.  

On Jan. 9, the search vessel’s high-precision acoustic positioning system detected a series of pings from the acoustic beacon installed on the cockpit voice recorder, which helped locate the wreckage. 

The wreckage field was 6,420 feet deep and about 1,200 feet south of the last signal received from the airplane. 

The flight crew and most of the wreckage were lifted to the surface on Jan. 10. The three deceased passengers will now be transported to Oahu, where the Honolulu Medical Examiner’s Office will identify them.

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

The NTSB investigation will be completed in 1 to 2 years.

Michelle Broder Van Dyke covers the Hawaiian Islands for Spectrum News Hawaii. Email her at michelle.brodervandyke@charter.com.

Related Stories