‘The smallest and cheapest’: Aviation attorney speaks out about fatal Kauaʻi helicopter crash

An attorney specializing in aviation accidents is speaking out about the tour helicopter that recently crashed in waters near the Nāpali Coast, killing one person and leaving the other two that were aboard missing, citing several safety issues with the aircraft model involved in the incident.

The cause of the crash is unknown, but the light, four-seat Robinson R44 helicopter owned by tour company Ali’i Kauai Air Tours & Charters was being flown by a pilot carrying two passengers before crashing on Thursday afternoon, July 11. 

“The Robinson, in the food chain of helicopters, is the smallest and cheapest of helicopters used by tour companies,” said Ladd Sanger, a managing partner at law firm Slack Davis Sanger based in Texas. 

Sanger, who specializes in representing aviation accident cases and has worked on dozens involving Robinson helicopters, said it was unfortunate to see people flying the single-engine Robinson. The Robinson R44 has a questionable safety history, including rotor, engine and controllability issues, Sanger noted.

“It can’t lift as much weight. It doesn’t have the performance that some of the other ones have, and it’s a single-engine helicopter that uses a piston engine instead of a turbine engine. Piston engines are less reliable than turbine engines,” he said. 

A 2018 investigative article by the Los Angeles Times details the popular civilian helicopter’s lengthy history of deadly crashes, saying the model had a fatality rate nearly 50% higher when compared to a dozen other common models. 

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the Robinson R44 helicopter was involved in 51 fatal accidents in the United States between 2010 and 2024, not including the recent crash on Kauaʻi. 

Between 2006 and 2024, there have been 31 fatal aircraft crashes in Hawaiʻi, with two of them involving the Robinson R44: one in 2019 in Kailua, and another on Molokai in 2017.

Sanger, who also has a helicopter license and has flown on Kauaʻi, said he would not fly in the single-engine Robinson R44 – especially while on Kauaʻi. 

“I wouldn’t go on a Robinson, and I wouldn’t go on a single-engine helicopter because the topography is so rugged that if there’s power loss … You don’t have anywhere to go, and it’s going to be a bad outcome. 

“So on Kauaʻi in particular, a twin-engine turbine helicopter seems to be the prudent thing to use, but very few operators do because they’re more expensive,” Sanger said. 

He advised those going on a tour to consider the kind of helicopter they are flying on, whether or not it has one or two engines and the type of insurance the operator carries in the event of an accident. 

He also questioned whether the tour company Ali’i Kauai Air Tours & Charters had enough insurance, saying that insurance for helicopter tour operators has gotten very expensive due to increases in crashes and accidents.

Sanger said no federal or state law dictates a minimum insurance coverage that tour aircraft operators must carry. 

He pointed to recent efforts to implement an insurance minimum, including a recent Hawaiʻi measure, Senate Bill 2459, which would have required aircraft operators to have at least $1 million of liability insurance coverage per person. 

“With a Robinson helicopter, I doubt that there’s going to be significant insurance on the operator to cover these damages,” he said, noting he also doubted the operator would be able to pay beyond what is covered by insurance. 

“The entire helicopter costs less than just the engine on the Airbus or Bell helicopters that other operators use,” he said, emphasizing that the Robinson is the cheapest helicopter used by tour companies.

The website Business Jet Traveler sets the price of a new Robinson R44 at roughly $465,000. Sanger compared its price to other types of tour helicopters, including the Bell 407, priced at $3.1 million, and the Airbus EC 135, listed at $4.7 million on the same website. 

“So the fact that the operator is choosing to fly in a Robinson helicopter is the first flag that they’re operating at the most inexpensive operation that they can,” Sanger said. 

On Friday afternoon, a representative for Ali‘i Kaua‘i Air Tours and Charters declined to comment about the crash. 

The company says it is the only Hawaiian and family-owned and operated air tour company on Kauaʻi on its website, where it describes the Robinson R44 as the perfect helicopter for private and personalized tours.

The U.S. Coast Guard and County of Kauaʻi emergency officials held a press conference about the crash on Friday afternoon as they continued their search for the two remaining individuals. The identities of the three onboard were not released, but the pilot was described as a Kauaʻi resident and the two passengers as visitors from the mainland. 

The body of the one individual recovered was located near what appeared to be an oil slick on the surface of the water and around floating debris, according to County of Kauaʻi Fire Chief Michael Gibson. 

Gibson said the cause of the incident is under investigation, but weather is not believed to have been a contributing factor. 

Sanger is hoping to get information about the weather, wreckage distribution, and weight and balance of the helicopter.

Other information that would help determine the cause and circumstances of the incident include the helicopter’s speed before the crash, the altitude it was flying, and whether or not the engine was running. 

Sanger says it’s most likely that no one onboard survived the tragic incident. 

“As long as it’s been, and with the Robinson helicopter, it’s probably likely that unfortunately, it was a fatality accident for everyone onboard. It would be a miracle if somebody survived,” Sanger said.

“I hate to be the one in the newspaper saying that,” he added, saying he realizes the family could be holding out some hope.

According to the NTSB, the last three fatal aircraft crashes on Kauaʻi occurred in March 2022, February 2022, and December 2019 – with two out of the three being helicopters. The March 2022 crash involved a Civil Air Patrol Cessna 172, a four-seat, single-engine airplane, which was attributed to low visibility and resulted in the deaths of all two on board. The February 2022 incident killed four due to a maintenance issue with the Sikorsky S-61N, a larger twin-engine turbine helicopter under contract to the United States Navy. The December 2019 incident was a helicopter tour crash involving the Airbus AS350 B2, a type of single-engine light utility helicopter, which was attributed to a pilot continuing to fly in worsening weather conditions and resulted in the death of all seven on board.

Corrections:

• An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed all three of the most recent fatal aircraft crashes on Kaua’i as helicopter incidents. The March 2022 incident involved a small airplane, not a helicopter. For further information, details about the make and model of each aircraft involved in the crashes have been added to this story.