U.S. authorities say a tour helicopter made a hard landing and rolled over Thursday in Hawaii.
U.S. authorities say a tour helicopter made a hard landing and rolled over Thursday in Puna.
Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said he had no immediate reports of injuries. The helicopter had departed from Hilo International Airport, he said.
Local officials say the helicopter went down in the mostly rural and remote Puna area and a rescue helicopter was trying to find it in an inaccessible area.
Eight people were aboard the helicopter, Hawaii County Fire Department Battalion Chief William Bergin said. “The pilot had to set the aircraft down” because an indicator light showed a problem with the tail rotor, he said.
The FAA says it will investigate the incident in an area where lava bubbled up for months in 2018 and destroyed more than 700 homes as it covered miles of land. The eruption of the Kilauea volcano created miles of new shoreline and filled an entire bay with molten rock.
It comes after a tour helicopter crashed in December, killing all seven people aboard on Kauai.
