KAUNAKAKAI, Hawaii -- Grieving students gathered at a special assembly Monday to remember Molokai High School's volleyball players, coach and athletic director, among the 20 people killed in Hawaii's worst interisland air crash.
School officials talked to the students about how to cope with the tragedy and also set up a special counseling center for the teenagers devastated by the deaths of their classmates.
'All our hearts are on Molokai today,' Gov. John Waihee said in a message to the close-knit island's 6,000 residents.
Police sealed off the crash site on Molokai's rugged northeast coast, and the airline and state Health Department sent professional crisis counselors to Molokai and Maui to help families and friends of the victims.
Health Director John Lewin said a Mental Health Division team included six crisis specialists, including two psychologists and two public health nurses.
A twin-engine Aloha IslandAir commuter plane slammed into a ridge in Halawa Valley on a 47-mile flight from Maui Saturday night, killing all 20 people aboard. The accident was described as the worst interisland air crash in the state's history.
Thirteen of the dead were Molokai residents, including eight players from Molokai High School's boys and girls volleyball teams, girls' volleyball coach Odetta Rapanot and the school's athletic director, John Ino.
The teams were returning from matches on Maui.
Six investigators from the National Transportation Board, headed by acting chairman James Kolstad, were on their way to Molokai to begin gathering evidence into the accident.
'They will check as much air traffic control communications as possible,' NTSB spokesman Alan Pollock said. 'They will try to determine the exact sequence of events as close as possible.'
The team includes specialists in aircraft operations, structures and power plants, he said.
The wreckage of the de Havilland Twin Otter is scattered over several hundred yards below the 750-foot level where the plane smashed into the side of the coastal valley.
Teams recovered all 20 bodies Sunday, rappeling from helicopters to reach the charred wreckage. The remains were flown to Maui for storage at a hospital morgue.
The plane's pilot, Capt. Bruce Pollard, had 3,600 flight hours and was soon to become a first officer with Aloha IslandAir parent Aloha Airlines. The 16-year-old plane had flown less than 20,000 hours and had a regular 100-hour checkup Oct. 19.
'There is nothing to indicate that anything in its maintenance history had anything to do with this incident,' said Peter Dudgeon, Aloha IslandAir's vice president and general manager.
Dudgeon said there were some reports of rain showers in the area Saturday night, but other pilots said the weather was clear. The plane made no radio contact and did not relay any indication of trouble before the accident, officials said.
