Five people survived when a single-engine Gippsland GA-8 came down in a field on the Hawaiian island of Kauai, in the United States, on Friday morning, 30 October. One person was taken to hospital with injuries the fire chief described as non-life-threatening, and the four others were not hurt1. The Federal Aviation Administration said the aircraft crashed at around 9 a.m. local time near Waimea, and that it will investigate12.

The Kauai Fire Department received the 911 call shortly before 9 a.m., reporting an aircraft down near Menehune Road in Waimea3. Local reports describe the site as rocky farmland on private property, on the Hanapepe side of the river14.

Engine noise before the landing

"Reports were that the pilot reported an engine popping sort of noise and tried to find a place to put the aircraft down," Fire Chief Michael Gibson told Hawaii News Now1. "As far as we know, the pilot reacted calmly," he said1. The aircraft did not catch fire or leak fuel, and crews secured the area for federal investigators1.

Those comments come from the fire chief, not from the investigators. The FAA says the information on its accident and incident statements page is preliminary and subject to change2.

Rescue over rough dirt roads

There are no paved roads to the site, so ground crews reached it over rough dirt roads and private land1. Responders came from the Waimea and Hanapepe fire stations, along with Rescue 3, Air 1, the on-duty battalion chief, American Medical Response, Lihue Airport Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting, the Kauai Police Department and private landowners14.

Crews took the injured passenger out of the aircraft on a litter4. That person was then airlifted to a landing zone and taken to hospital by ambulance1. The four others escaped unhurt1. "We are just very relieved that nobody was tragically hurt," Gibson said1.

The aircraft and the operator

According to the FAA, the aircraft is owned by Lihue-based Air Ventures Hawaii LLC, the Star-Advertiser reported3. The company advertises air tours of Waimea Canyon, the Napali Coast and Hanalei Valley on its website3. Gibson said the flight was likely a tour, with one pilot and four passengers on board1.

The GA-8 Airvan is a single-engine, shoulder-wing utility aircraft built in Australia by GippsAero, formerly Gippsland Aeronautics5. It first flew in 1995 and carries up to eight people including the pilot, on a Lycoming piston engine of 300 hp in its standard version5. Operators use it for passenger and freight flights, sightseeing and parachute operations5.

What pilots train for in a forced landing

The FAA's Airplane Flying Handbook defines a forced landing as an immediate landing, on or off an airport, made because the flight cannot continue, with engine failure as the typical example6. It separates this from a precautionary landing, in which further flight is still possible but inadvisable, and which leaves the pilot more time to choose terrain and plan the approach6.

On site selection, the handbook says the choice depends on the route planned before the flight, the height above the ground when the emergency starts and any excess airspeed6. It tells pilots to pick a general area first when an emergency starts at height, because terrain can look very different from altitude, and warns against changing the plan more than once6. Its central point is control at touchdown: the handbook calls the loss of initiative over attitude and sink rate the most critical error in an emergency landing, even on ideal terrain6. As a general rule, it says, "a well-executed crash landing in poor terrain can be less hazardous than an uncontrolled touchdown on an established field"6.