Lihue Airport

February 2025

  • A Gippsland GA-8 aircraft’s right landing gear collapsed as it was landing causing damage to the fuselage. The four passengers and pilot came out unharmed but sustained minor injuries.

2024

  • June
    • Boeing 737 carrying eight passengers experienced a rapid and abnormal descent off the coast of Kauai near Lihue Airport, dropping from roughly 1000 feet at a rate exceeding 4000 feet per minute. The aircraft came dangerously close, just 400 feet, from impacting the ocean before the crew managed to pull it up swiftly, executing a rapid climb to avoid disaster. All passengers and pilots came out unharmed.
  • July
    • A sightseeing Robinson R44 Helicopter crashed killing all three passengers and pilot. Investigators say that the crash was likely due to the weather much like to the crash of 2019.

December 2022

  • A single-engine Beechcraft BE77 crashed near Lihue Airport. The aircraft lost power shortly before takeoff and collided with the fence. The father and the son crawled out the wreckage with serious injuries but nothing fatal.

December 2019

  • A sightseeing Airbus Helicopter AS350 crashed on the Island of Kauai destroying and killing all seven occupants. The Board officially concluded that the accident was caused by the pilot’s choice to proceed with the flight under visual flight rules despite encountering instrument meteorological conditions, ultimately leading to the aircraft’s impact with the terrain.

November 2018

  • A Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 717-200 was rejected for take by the crew due to an engine failure. No one was harmed and the aircraft safely slowed down and returned to the apron.

2016

  • Five die in crash of skydiving plane on Kauai.  The single-engine experienced problems after take off.  The plane caught fire after crashing.

2014

  • Ultra light crashes in Kauai.  Two fatalities; one being the highly acclaimed Gerry Charlebois.  He was a well known aviator as “Hawaii’s Ultra Light Pioneer”.

2011

  • Ultralight crashes in Kauai’s north shore following the take off, both passenger and pilot died.

2007

  • Hawaii tour Helicopter Crash kills 4 and critically injures 3 due to hydraulic problems near Princeville Airport.

February 1, 2001

  • A Safari Helicopters Euro-Copter Aerostar 350 experienced a hydraulic hold-over & rolled over during a check before takeoff. No injuries.

June 14, 2000

  • A Hawaiian Airlines DC-9-51, Flight No. 193, made a hard landing on Runway 35. A portion of the airplane’s aft pressure bulkhead was found bent, and the airplane was substantially damaged. None of the 359 souls on board were injured.

November 18, 1981

  • A Hawaiian Airlines DC-9-80 taxied into the mud along the main runway, closing the airport for five hours until it could be towed out. There were no injuries.

September 5, 1980

  • The pilot of an experimental craft lost control of his homemade plane while performing high-speed taxi tests on the runway and crashed into a parked and unoccupied tour aircraft. There were no injuries.

November 10, 1978

  • A near mid-air collision occurred between a Hawaiian Airlines DC-9 and an Island Air Beach 18. The incident occurred about 5,500 feet over the ocean about 16 miles from Lihue Airport. The HAL plane was enroute to Lihue and the Island Air plane had just taken off.

February 28, 1976

  • A twin-engine Beechcraft tour plane carrying nine passengers veered off the runway while landing, going through a fence and coming to a halt in an irrigation ditch. There were no injuries to passengers in the Panorama Air Tours plane.

October 11, 1969

  • A Skyways Air Cargo plane from Honolulu landed with its left engine in flames. Quick work by the crash fire crew and the pilot averted serious damage to the plane. There were no injuries.

October 19, 1959

  • A Hawaiian Air National Guard pilot brought a smoking F86L fighter-interceptor plane into Lihue Airport for a perfect, power-off, emergency landing in the dark. There were no injuries. The fire was extinguished by crash fire crews.