Dramatic new footage shows the moment a small plane crashed in Hawaiian waters and resulted in the death of state health official Loretta Fuddy – the woman responsible for releasing President Barack Obama’s longform birth certificate.
The footage obtained by ABC News was taken by a passenger on the plane, who started filming out the window of the flight just moments before it made an emergency water landing.
Water quickly starts to flood the cabin after impact, but everyone on board remains calm and quiet as they exit the sinking aircraft.
Fuddy, 65, was the only person on board to perish in the crash. The other eight people on board, including the pilot, were rescued or swam to shore.
She gained notoriety in 2011 for making President’s Barack Obama’s birth certificate public, attempting to squash rumors that he wasn’t born in the country.
Fuddy was on the flight from Molokai to Oahu after visiting a state-run leper colony on the smaller Hawaiian island.
The incident occurred when the single engine of the 2002 Cessna Grand Caravan failed soon after it took off from Molokai and made its turn toward Honolulu, said Richard Schuman, owner of Makani Kai Air, operator of the plane.
Fuddy made it out of the sinking plane fine, but died after escaping.
In the water, Fuddy held hands with her deputy director Keith Yamamoto as he tried to help her relax, said the Rev. Patrick Killilea, who consoled Yamamoto after the ordeal.
‘He recounted how he said he helped Loretta into her life jacket and he held her hand for some time,’ the priest said. ‘They were all floating together and she let go and there was no response from her.’
Coast Guard rescuers who arrived after making the half-hour flight from Oahu to the neighbor island said Thursday that the single-engine turboprop aircraft wasn’t visible when they got there, only the nine passengers floating across about a half-mile of water littered with random debris
The rescuers in two helicopters and an HC-130 airplane said the people were in clusters and acted calm when help arrived.
Rescue swimmer Mark Peer said when he swam to Fuddy, she was unresponsive and he couldn’t find a pulse. ‘It was not a good feeling,’ he said.
Post-crash selfie: The new footage who took a picture of himself in the water after the crash
Waiting for rescue: Puentes holds onto a piece of some sort of flotation device while wearing a life preserver
Proof? Fuddy entered the national spotlight briefly in 2011 when she authorized the release of Barack Obama’s long-form birth certificate to put to rest so-called ‘birther’ conspiracies about the nation of the Commander-in-Chief’s birth
Tribute: Governor Neil Abercrombie (right) said state Health Department Director Loretta Fuddy (left) was loved and respected
C. Phillip Hollstein recalled 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.
‘Everyone was real quiet. We hit (the water) and it was all about getting the belts off,’ he said, describing how everyone started putting on life jackets and remained on the plane until it seemed to start sinking.
‘There wasn’t panic or anything. It was very orderly,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t like any of the movies or the TV shows.’
Help: A U.S. Coast Guard rescue team poses in front of a helicopter used in the rescue at Kapolei, Hawaii
Tragic: A memorial for Loretta Fuddy, the director of the state Department of Health, is displayed outside the department in Honolulu
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.’
Gov. Neil Abercrombie said Fuddy was loved and respected. ‘Her knowledge was vast, her counsel and advice always given from her heart as much as from her storehouse of experience,’ he said.
About 100 Health Department employees lined up to pay their respects to Fuddy’s family members, who attended a gathering in her memory at the department’s parking lot following her death.
Sad: Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie, right, speaks at a gathering in memory of Loretta Fuddy
After the crash, three survivors were transported by helicopter to a Honolulu hospital. Two declined to be medically evacuated, officials said
Hollstein said he and a local couple were taken to the Molokai hospital, where they took hot showers and dried their clothing. They were given a place to rest until they could get rooms at the island’s only hotel.
Fuddy and Yamamoto were on the flight after an annual visit to Kalaupapa, where the state exiled leprosy patients until 1969. The area is accessible only by plane or mule.
The leprosy settlement on Kalaupapa is still run by the Health Department, though only a few former leprosy patients continue to live there.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2536931/New-footage-shows-harrowing-moment-small-plane-crashed-Hawaii-killed-woman-published-President-Obamas-birth-certificate.html#ixzz2pzYzCNTO
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Let’s see. Do I believe that this was a “tragic accident”?
Nope. Not sure of what happened but definitely don’t believe the “official” story. This woman was a potential problem if she decided to talk some day.
Dead men (and women) tell no tales.
Congressman McDonald………….
wellstone