Waimea, Kauai, Hawaii: Five Rescued After Small Plane Makes Emergency Landing, One Person Injured

Five people were rescued on Friday morning, October 30, after a single-engine airplane made an emergency landing in the Menehune Road area of Waimea, on the west side of Kauai, according to a preliminary report from the Kauai Fire Department carried by Maui Now. One person on board had apparent injuries. The other four were not injured.

Kauai Fire Department personnel received the report shortly before 9 a.m. on Friday. Initial reports said five people were on board the aircraft when it came down.

The rescue on Menehune Road

Rescue crews freed the injured passenger from the aircraft and carried the person out by litter, Maui Now reported. Firefighters and medics from several agencies took part in the response. Personnel from the Waimea and Hanapepe fire stations responded, along with Rescue 3, the Air 1 helicopter, the on-duty battalion chief, American Medical Response, Lihue Airport Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting, and the Kauai Police Department. Private landowners in the area also helped responders reach the scene.

The Westside Ledger, reporting the County of Kauai account of the incident, said the emergency landing happened in the Menehune Road area and that firefighters extricated the injured passenger and moved the person from the scene on a rescue litter. The county account matches the fire department preliminary report on the number of people on board, the one injury, and the agencies that responded.

What officials have not said

Officials have not said what forced the airplane down. The circumstances of the emergency landing remain unclear, including what prompted it and how serious the injured passenger's condition is. Officials have not released information about where the flight started, where it was headed, or who operated the aircraft.

The incident was still active on Friday morning as crews worked at the scene, and officials advised the public to stay away from the area while the response continued. No names of the people on board have been released, and county officials said updates would be provided as more information becomes available.

Waimea sits on the southwest coast of Kauai, near the mouth of the Waimea River and the road to Waimea Canyon. Menehune Road runs inland from the town through a rural area of fields and small farms, the kind of open ground where a pilot in trouble would look for room to put an aircraft down.

For the five people on board, the landing ended with all of them alive and in the hands of rescuers within the morning. One passenger left the scene on a litter with injuries that officials have not described in detail. The four others walked away without injuries reported.