Big Island pilots respond to Maui crisis

Within hours of learning of the devastation wrought on the Maui town of Lahaina, phones were ringing among the general aviation pilots of Hawaii. An often under-appreciated yet vital part of the emergency infrastructure of Hawaii, private pilots and aircraft owners throughout the state began organizing flights of lifesaving supplies of food, medicine, clothing, water and whatever else the victims of the fire were in dire need of.

With fires still burning the morning after the the firestorm destroyed Lahaina, private pilots in single engine planes filled with supplies were in the air in route to the small private runway at Kapalua just north of the devastated town. They landed on a windblown runway through thick blowing smoke. Land, unload your cargo, turnaround, takeoff and do it again. That was their mission.

On the Big Island of Hawaii the word started to spread via the aviation coconut wireless on Friday that help was needed. Commercial operators Paradise Helicopters and Mauna Loa Helicopters were already gathering supplies and flying them to Kapalua. Pilots and individuals such as Dana Asis, a Waimea realtor and private pilot, began organizing pilots, planes and donated emergency supplies. First thing Saturday morning the general aviation ramp at Kona Airport was alive with pilots preflighting their planes. Loads of food, water, clothes, toilet paper, gas cans and medicines were being rushed about on golf carts and hand loaded into planes.

As soon as a plane is stuffed to their weight limit, doors are closed, “Clear prop!” is yelled, engines fired up and they leave for Maui. A solid stream of small single engine Cessna and Piper airplanes began flying to and from the disaster zone all day long. Such flights are continuing daily as long as the need for help exists.

A call came in at 6 a.m. Saturday morning that insulin was desperately needed for people in Lahaina who had to escape their burning homes without their life saving medicines. A heavy cooler full of iced insulin had been driven over from Hilo Hospital during the night and was in one of Paradise Helicopters employee’s grandfather’s meat refrigerator in the Palisades subdivision. It had to get to Maui within hours and a doctor needed to be picked up in Kahalui and flown to Kapalua to administer the proper medications to patients. Could we get two planes and do it? Of course, was the answer, give me the info and we will get it done.

Similar acts of generosity and confidence in their abilities are playing out everyday by regular pilots throughout Hawaii. While government agencies and non-profits are still figuring out their plans of action, general aviation pilots throughout the state are grabbing their flight bags and heading for the airport to fly their own planes, at their own expense, on their own time to help the people of Hawaii when time and need are the most critical.