The Latest: NTSB investigates deadly Hawaii skydiving crash

By Associated Press 24 June 2019, 12:00AM

HONOLULU (AP) — The Latest on a plane crash in Hawaii that killed 11 sky divers (all times local):

12:15 p.m.

The National Transportation Safety Board says it will examine repair and inspection records on the skydiving plane that crashed and killed 11 people on Oahu's North Shore.

The NTSB's Jennifer Homendy told reporters at the crash site Sunday that those and other records will all become part of the investigation and final report. The same plane sustained tail damage in a California accident in 2016.

A preliminary report is expected in 10 to 14 days.

Homendy said the plane was equipped to carry 13 people, but that weight and balance checks need to be conducted before each flight.

She said the airplane banked shortly after takeoff and crashed inverted. No one aboard survived, making it the deadliest civil aviation incident since 2011.

The airport remains closed during the investigation.

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9:25 a.m.

Some details are starting to be released about the 11 victims who died when a plane carrying sky divers crashed near a small airport on the North Shore of Oahu.

Police told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the victims were nine men and two women.

Both women and three of the men were all in their late 20s. Police, who didn't return messages to The Associated Press, didn't have ages on the six others.

Names of the victims have not been released. A spokesman for the mayor's office says the earliest any information will be released by the Honolulu medical examiner's office will be Monday.

The crash appeared to be the worst U.S. civil aviation accident since a 2011 accident at the Reno Air Show in Nevada that killed the pilot and 10 spectators.

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12:00 a.m.

Casey Williamson's love of adventure led him to winter snowboarding in Vail, Colorado, and summer skydiving in Moab, Utah. A year-and-a-half ago, he found his way to Hawaii where he could skydive year-round.

On Friday, the 29-year-old was among 11 killed when their skydiving plane crashed and burned at a coastal airfield on the island of Oahu. No one on board survived.

It was the worst civilian aviation accident in the U.S. since 2011.

Williamson's cousin Natacha Mendenhall says Williamson was his mother Carla Ajaga's only child.

She says the family is very upset. She says his mother wants everyone to know how full of life and how loving her son was.

By Associated Press 24 June 2019, 12:00AM

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