Friday, December 13, 2013

Hawaii’s health director dies as small plane with nine people on board crashes off island

More conflicting evidence: initial reports state that all 9 people survived: one swam to shore, 3 rescued by the helicopter and 5 by Fire rescue, later the story was changed. Passenger C. Phillip Holstein contradicted the reports of her body being the the fuselage, he stated that she was fine when she got out of the plane.

Posted on | December 13, 2013


Previously posted report by deputy Director of Health Keith Yamamoto stated that he helped Fuddy to put her life vest on and they got out, were holding hands and then suddenly she let go and did not respond.
However, other reports state that her body was found inside the plane. Which story is true? Did she get out or not?
Further, initial reports stated that one person swam to shore, 3 people were picked up by a helicopter and 5 by fire rescue, which makes it 9. It means that Fuddy survived. However, new reports are omitting report of one person swimming to shore and claim that her body was rescued later in the fuselage of the plane.   Did she survive or not?
This report by the Maui police dept. on Thursday says the body was recovered from the wreckage and an autopsy will be done.

Fuddy, 65, was among nine people in a Cessna that crashed into the ocean Wednesday, shortly after leaving Kalaupapa Airport on the island of Molokai about 3:15 p.m. The eight others on the plane, including the pilot, were rescued, but Fuddy “remained in the fuselage of the plane,” Honolulu Fire Capt. Terry Seelig told KHON-TV. “It’s always a difficult situation when you’re not able to get everybody out.”
On Thursday, Lt. William Juan with the Maui Police Department said that Fuddy’s body had been recovered from the wreckage and that an autopsy would be conducted.”
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Hawaii’s health director dies as small plane with nine people on board crashes off island


  • Loretta Fuddy named as victim in light aircraft crash
  • Rescue crews alerted after second pilot spotted debris in the sea
By Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED:| UPDATED:


Hawaii’s health director has died after a light aircraft carrying nine people crashed in the sea off the island of Molokai on Wednesday.
Loretta Fuddy, who was on an annual visit to the the island, was named as the sole victim in the crash by state government sources.
One passenger was able to swim to shore and the others on board the Cessna Grand Caravan were rescued by helicopter and boat.
The Makani Kai Air plane, which was scheduled to fly to Honolulu at 3.15pm, went down at about 3.45pm, half a mile northwest of Kalaupapa peninsula, Maui Fire Department spokesman Lee Mainaga said.
Ms Fuddy had been booked on the flight along with the health department’s deputy director Keith Yamamoto, a spokeswoman for the department said.
Two government sources later confirmed to Kitv that Ms Fuddy had died.
The 65-year-old, who had won awards for her work with children and social work, had been appointed as director in 2011.
Ms Fuddy and Mr Yamamoto had been on an annual visit to Kalaipapa, a former colony for leprosy sufferers.

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The remote peninsula on the north side of Molokai still houses a settlement for patients with leprosy, which is run by the Health Department.
Three of the crash survivors were plucked from the sea by a Coast Guard helicopter and fire crews saved five others.

The Hawaiian health official who verified the authenticity of President Obama’s birth certificate died in a small plane crash.
The plane, carrying a pilot and eight passengers, went down Wednesday in the water a half mile off the Hawaiian island of Molokai, the Maui Fire Department said. The lone fatality was Loretta Fuddy, who has served as state health director since January 2011. Tom Matsuda, the interim executive director of Hawaii’s health insurance exchange, confirmed Fuddy’s death.
Fuddy, 65, made national news in April 2011 when she verified the authenticity of certified copies of President Obama’s birth certificate. Obama had requested the release to curb claims by so-called “birthers” that he was born in Kenya and not eligible to be president.
Makani Kai Air President Richard Schuman told Honolulu-based KITV that he spoke with the pilot of the single-engine turboprop Cessna Grand Caravan after the crash.
“What he reported is after takeoff … there was catastrophic engine failure,” Schuman said. “He did the best he can to bring the aircraft down safely and he got everybody out of the aircraft.”
Schuman said the cause of the engine failure had not yet been determined. The National Transportation Safety Board was investigating the crash; NTSB spokesman Eric Weiss said that based on the location of the crash it was unlikely the plane will be recovered.
“Our hearts are broken,” Gov. Neil Abercrombie said in a statement. “Loretta was deeply loved and respected. She was selfless, utterly dedicated and committed to her colleagues in the Department of Health and to the people of Hawaii. Her knowledge was vast; her counsel and advice always given from her heart as much as from her storehouse of experience.”
Matsuda, who worked with Fuddy to set up the state’s Obamacare website, Hawaii Health Connector, called her death “a terrible loss” for the state.
“I worked closely with Director Fuddy on the Affordable Care Act and came to know and respect her as a passionate advocate for public health and a warm, caring human being,” Matsuda said.
The plane went down about a half-mile northwest of Kalaupapa peninsula, which was home to a leper colony until 1969. A handful of patients still live there. The state health director by law remains mayor of part of the peninsula, and Fuddy was visiting the peninsula in that capacity, state Health Department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said.
Okubo said the department’s deputy director, Keith Yamamoto, also had been booked on the flight.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Melissa McKenzie said a Coast Guard helicopter got three passengers out of the water while Maui fire crews picked up five people. One person swam ashore.
Contributing: Associated Press
Plane lost power, then glided, Molokai crash survivor says
By Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, Associated Press
POSTED: 09:37 a.m. HST, Dec 13, 2013
LAST UPDATED: 09:43 a.m. HST, Dec 13, 2013
Excerpt:
The crash of a small plane off of Molokai was calm, orderly and none of the passengers seemed to be very distressed or have any major injuries, said a passenger who swam to shore.
C. Phillip Hollstein recalled today that the plane had just taken off from Molokai and was making a turn toward Honolulu when it seemed like something on the plane broke.
“We probably weren’t a minute out,” he said. “It wasn’t real loud or anything. Just a muffled bang. Then we were a glider.”
The plane lost power, he said, and the pilot maneuvered a water landing on the plane’s belly.
….Bobbing in the water, Hollstein noticed the pilot and seven other passengers seemed fine. “I didn’t want to sit out there bobbing, so I figured I’d take a shot at going to the shoreline.”
He guesses the swim to the rugged shoreline took an hour and a half. He was surprised to hear later that one of the passengers, Hawaii Health Director Loretta Fuddy, had later died.
“She was doing fine out of the airplane,” Hollstein said. “Her assistant was really watching her. He was taking care of her.”

Front page of US News and World report: Donald Trump and Orly Taitz Reinvigorate ‘Birtherism’ After Hawaii Plane Crash State Health Director Loretta Fuddy died Wednesday after a crash-landing near Molokai island

Posted on | December 13, 2013

State Health Director Loretta Fuddy died Wednesday after a crash-landing near …

U.S. News & World Report
2 hours ago
Written by
Steven Nelson
Orly Taitz, a Russian-born dentist-turned-lawyer who has tenaciously filed court challenges to Obama’s eligibility to be president, also weighed in on Fuddy’s death.
Donald Trump breathed new life into his theory that President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. after the state official who approved the release of his birth certificate was killed in a plane crash Wednesday.
Prominent leaders of the so-called “birther” movement pounced Thursday on news that Hawaii State Department of Health Director Loretta Fuddy died after a Wednesday plane crash.
Fuddy approved the release of President Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate in 2011, after the president requested the document. Billionaire businessman Donald Trump, toying with the idea of running for president, had aggressively toured the country demanding its release.
Obama’s decision to release his birth certificate deprived the “birther” movement of its key demand, but didn’t kill the skepticism of some political opponents.
Trump suggested on Twitter there may be more to the story of Fuddy’s death.
“How amazing, the State Health Director who verified copies of Obama’s ‘birth certificate’ died in plane crash today. All others lived,” he tweeted Thursday.
Richard Schuman, owner of Makani Kai Air, said his company’s plane crashed near Hawaii’s Molokai island after experiencing engine failure. The Cessna Grand Caravan crash-landed in the ocean shortly after take-off and the other eight people on board survived.
Orly Taitz, a Russian-born dentist-turned-lawyer who has tenaciously filed court challenges to Obama’s eligibility to be president, also weighed in on Fuddy’s death.
Taitz said her attempts to debunk the authenticity of Obama’s birth certificate may be connected to the plane crash.
“Attorney Taitz calls on eight courts and judges who received her cases to rule expeditiously on the merits and review the evidence of forgery and theft in Obama’s IDs before more people die in strange accidents,” she said in a press release.
Taitz hastily wrote a letter Thursday to Fuddy’s deputy, Keith Yamamoto, inquiring about the specifics of department policy for releasing long-form birth certificates. Yamamoto was on board the plane and told Catholic priest Patrick Killilea he was holding Fuddy’s hand when she died, Killilea told KITV.
In April 2011 Trump told the “Today” show he had dispatched a investigators to Hawaii to investigate Obama’s birth place and claimed “they cannot believe what they’re finding.”
[ALSO: 'Obamaphone' Backers Want to Prevent $5 Charge in Georgia]
His probe produced no evidence showing Obama was not born in Hawaii.
Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio, however took on the challenge and appointed a five-person “cold case posse” to analyze the White House-released birth certificate. During a March 2012 press conference he declared it a “computer-generated forgery” and claimed two felonies had been committed in its preparation.
Arpaio, however, seems to be on the outs with the “birther” movement. Taitz published on her blog a letter from a self-described Arpaio donor, who promised not to send the 81-year-old sheriff another contribution until he acts on “the 100 [percent] evidence [he] claims to have showing that Obama committed fraud in Maricopa county by running for president.”
Arpaio’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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