A tourist helicopter with five people on board crashed in the water near Ford Island shortly after 10 a.m. Thursday, and good Samaritans jumped into the water to pull the victims to shore.
A 16-year-old boy was in critical condition after the crash, and was taken to The Queen’s Medical Center.
Two others, a 50-year-old man and a 45-year-old woman, were in stable condition, paramedics said. The conditions of the two remaining people on board the helicopter was not immediately known, but they were not believed to be critically injured.
Emergency crews are staging at the Arizona Memorial Visitor Center, which has been closed for the day. A Navy spokesman said the helicopter reportedly belongs to Genesis Aviation.
The FAA said in a statement that a Bell 206 helicopter with five people aboard crashed into Pearl Harbor near the USS Arizona.
A witness told CBS Honolulu affiliate KGMB-TV that the helicopter seemed to fall from the sky.
“My initial reaction was, ‘This helicopter is kinda low flying.’ It then hovered for a sec and then started to descend,” witness Roy Gano said in an email to KGMB-TV. “It was not spinning out of control, but it was dropping at a good rate. It narrowly missed the rocky edge and turned to its side … I saw people dive into the water to help.”
