Missing Hawaii Tour Helicopter Found; 6 Confirmed Dead

HONOLULU — A Hawaii tour helicopter missing since Thursday has been found, and authorities have confirmed six people on board are dead and one is missing.

The search for the final person resumed on Saturday.

There are no indications that anybody survived the crash, authorities said Friday night after the remains of six of the people on board were found, The Associated Press reported.

The pilot has been identified as 69-year-old Paul Matero of Wailua. Two of the passengers were from Wisconsin, college instructor Amy Gannon and her 13-year-old daughter Jocelyn. "The four other passengers are believed to be a family from Switzerland," the Kauai Police Department said on Facebook, "however, their identities have not yet been released at this time."

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The aircraft, which reportedly had two children on board, never returned from its Thursday flight off Kauai.

The wreckage was found around 9:30 a.m. local time in Koke‘e State Park, officials said.

“There are no indications of survivors,” Kauai Fire Department Battalion Chief Sol Kanoho told reporters.

The helicopter was set to tour the rugged and remote Kauai's Na Pali Coast, most of which is a state park. It was featured in the film “Jurassic Park."

The plane crashed at the top of a mountain on the island of Kauai, authorities said, according to the AP.

Nearly 80 percent of Kauai is uninhabited, and much of that is a state park, according to the Coast Guard, which added Kauai's accessed or viewed daily by visitors aboard helicopters from several tour companies depending on the weather. Common points of interest include Jurassic Park Falls, the Hanapepe Valley, Waimea Canyon, the Nā Pali Coast, the Hanalei Valley, and Mt. Waialeale.