The wreckage of a missing helicopter carrying two passengers, including a prominent Honolulu attorney, was found with no survivors on Molokai’s east end Wednesday afternoon.
At 1:31 p.m., the Maui Fire Department’s Air One helicopter spotted the wreckage about 1.3 miles mauka of the road, near 793 Kamehameha V Highway, Fire Services Chief Ed Taomoto said.
Honolulu attorney Gary Galiher, 70, was on board the missing chopper, Ilana Waxman, managing partner with Galiher DeRobertis Waxman, confirmed Wednesday morning.
Galiher was traveling from Oahu to his home on Molokai on Tuesday night but failed to arrive, setting off a several-hour search along the island’s south shore.
Waxman, a born-and-raised Maui attorney who joined Galiher’s firm in 2007, said that Galiher was piloting the helicopter with a friend on board. Galiher has a home on Molokai’s east end and has traveled back and forth between there and Oahu for many years, she said.
“He’s an extremely experienced pilot,” Waxman told The Maui News while the search was ongoing. “He’s made this trip many, many times.”
After the black Hughes 369D helicopter did not arrive on Molokai, an employee called 911 at 6:55 a.m. Wednesday, according to the Coast Guard. Dispatchers notified the Honolulu command center. Air One and a Coast Guard helicopter, airplane and cutter joined the morning search.
“Based on reports that he overflew the area, they concentrated their search in valleys mauka of where people reported hearing the helicopter fly past,” Taomoto said.
Air One located the wreckage in a densely wooded area at about the 1,400-foot elevation, Taomoto said. Fire rescue crews were lowered to the crash site from a helicopter.
“There are no trails or any way to get there except to be flown in by helicopter,” he said.
The chopper was less than a mile away from the helicopter pad the pilot was looking to land on, Taomoto said.
Pukoo resident Lailani Apodaca, who lives about a mile from Galiher, said she was just getting home around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday when she noticed a helicopter “flying really low” in the area.
“I thought it was a search helicopter, because we’ve had other crashes above Halawa,” Apodaca said.
Apodaca said she didn’t hear the chopper crash.
“It was raining, it was very windy, and so I don’t think we would’ve been able to hear much from where I was,” she said.
Apodaca said she didn’t know Galiher personally but could see his home and helicopter pad up on the hill.
According to county property tax records, Galiher owned and leased, alone or in partnership, more than 360 acres in Honomuni area.
Molokai resident Carol Kanemitsu said she met Galiher through his neighbors many years ago. On occasion, she and her family went over to Galiher’s home at Christmas.
“He was very nice, very pleasant,” Kanemitsu said. “A real down-to-earth guy.”
Galiher, the founder and senior partner of Galiher DeRobertis Waxman, specialized in personal injury cases, according to his firm’s website.
Galiher came to Hawaii after earning his bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of California at Los Angeles. He worked as a carpenter, commercial diver, captain of a dive shop tour boat and special education teacher at Haleiwa Elementary School on Oahu before deciding to study law.
After graduating from the William S. Richardson School of Law at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Galiher began practicing law in 1977.
In 1978, Galiher started his own firm, which would later become Galiher DeRobertis Waxman. In January 2015, the firm opened an office on Maui. Throughout his career, Galiher has tried at least 50 cases to verdict.
“He was an excellent attorney and excellent member of the bar,” said Jacob Lowenthal, president of the Maui County Bar Association. “He’ll be deeply missed. We wish we could’ve worked with him longer.”
Lowenthal’s brother Ben, also an attorney, said that Galiher was “willing to go against some very powerful corporations and entities.”
In a lawsuit against several major tobacco companies that involved 46 states, five territories and the District of Columbia in the late 1990s, Galiher was appointed a special attorney general to represent Hawaii, according to the firm’s website. His firm helped secure a $1.4 billion settlement for Hawaii.
In 1982, Galiher also represented the Nobriga family in the first mesothelioma case to be tried in Hawaii. Since then, the firm has become known for representing clients in hundreds of mesothelioma and asbestos cases.
Waxman told The Associated Press that when Galiher found success with his firm, he wanted to buy a house on Molokai, where he once dove for black coral to help pay for law school.
Federal Aviation Association spokesperson Allen Kenitzer said Wednesday that the FAA and National Transportation Safety Bureau will investigate the crash.
* Colleen Uechi can be reached at cuechi@mauinews.com.
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