Engine fire stalls small plane at airport

The Maui News:
Engine fire stalls small plane at airport

By MELISSA TANJI, Staff Writer

KAHULUI - A small propeller plane's left engine caught fire Sunday morning after landing near the Kahului Airport commuter terminal, shutting down the airport's short runway but not halting flight operations, an airport official said.

Three people aboard the twin-engine Piper Aztec flying in from Oahu were not hurt in the 10:30 a.m. incident, said Airport Manager Jon Sakamoto.
"There wasn't any major problems," he said.

The shorter runway was reopened around 2:15 p.m.

George Hanzawa - owner of George's Aviation Services on Oahu which owns the plane - said it was a "small little" ground fire that did "minimal damage, if any." He said the fire was contained to an air-filter box, and attributed the incident to a "start procedure that went wrong."

Police Lt. Darrell Johnson, with the Wailuku Patrol District, said the plane was taxiing on the runway after landing when its left engine died. The pilot was trying to restart the engine when the engine compartment started smoking and caught on fire, he said.

There was damage to the left engine compartment and the left wing, Johnson said.

But Hanzawa said the damage was not serious.

"The plane can fly, it's one of those things," he said.

He said the plane was a flight-training plane. The pilot of the plane was on a personal flight and apparently did something "out of the ordinary" with the start procedure, he said.

Newlyweds Tim and Angela Nelson said they were waiting at the commuter terminal for friends who were coming in on the Aztec to take them on a flight to Molokai.

"They landed and it caught on fire," Tim Nelson said.

"It was really smoky," added Angela.

The Nelsons said they thought something was wrong when the plane landed, rolled to a stop on the tarmac away from the terminal and the people got out.

"I thought it was kind of funny," Tim said.

Angela said no sooner did they see flames that an airport fire engine was next to the aircraft putting the flames out with foam.

"This huge spray of foam covered it," she said, adding the force of the foam moved the plane.

Maui County fire crews along with police also responded to the incident.

Wes Carson, a truck driver picking up a shipment at the airport cargo building, said he didn't see the plane land, but suddenly noticed, "Plenty smoke, just plenty smoke."

Within a few minutes, he said, an airport fire truck arrived on the scene and then five minutes later, more fire trucks and police arrived.

"Then there was all the white on the ground," he said.

After the engine fire was out, the tarmac was coated with white around the plane about 100 yard away from the terminal buildings.

Tim Nelson said his friends on the plane said they had had trouble getting it started at the Honolulu airport. They were supposed to have been on Maui around 8:45 a.m. but arrived nearly two hours later.

Tim, a Realtor, and Angela, a news producer for Boston.com, said the only bad part of the incident was their wait at the airport. They thought they might be taking the ferry to Molokai instead.

Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.