Hawai’i Police Department
Criminal Investigations Section, Area II
Lieutenant Gerald Wike
Phone: 326-4646, Ext. 266
April 21, 2010
Big Island police have initiated two coroner’s inquest cases in connection with a small aircraft that crashed into Kealakekua Bay on Wednesday morning.
The pilot and sole passenger were both killed in the crash.
The pilot has been identified as 38-year-old Tedd Robert Hecklin, owner of Tedd’s Flying Adventures in Kailua-Kona. The female passenger has not been positively identified.
The Fire Department received a report of the crash at 9:36 a.m., 20 minutes after the Airborne Outback XT-912 SST Tundra micro-light aircraft departed from the Kona airport.
Eyewitnesses on commercial boat tours in Kealakekua Bay said the aircraft was banking left when they heard a loud popping sound, observed the aircraft’s wing fold up and then saw the plane fall into the ocean.
Occupants from the commercial boats trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation attempted CPR on the pilot and passenger but were unsuccessful at reviving them.
The victims were transported to the Kealakekua boat ramp. Fire Department personnel then took them to Kona Community Hospital, where both were pronounced dead.
Autopsies have been ordered to determine the exact cause of both deaths.
The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board have been notified of the aircraft accident.