Life is Sacred

Something very disturbing happened today. I pray to God that this is my only serious posting on this blog. Jessica and I went to Tunnels Beach in Ha'ena this afternoon to go snorkeling. We haven't been to Tunnels Beach since our honeymoon, where I was swimming with 6 foot long sea turtles. This is one of the most beautiful beaches on the island and the day was perfect - not too hot but lots of sun.

About an hour and a half in, I'm reading my book and suddenly, I hear 3 women screaming. Jessica says that about 30 seconds earlier, she saw a helicopter flying over the water and all of the sudden, she hears a big bang, like it hit something. Then, it started wobbling from side to side. The helicopter immediately goes off course and starts heading for land, still upright but losing elevation quickly. It disappears out of view beyond the horizon. Less than a minute later, two men run up and start asking what direction the helicopter was headed. They start running so I grab my shoes and start sprinting after them. When I get to the road, I see a huge truck with a ton of guys yelling, "The copter crashed. It's that way!"

I run back to get Jessica and we jump into the car to see if we can help. We see a ton of commotion about a half mile down. We turn in and see that the helicopter crashed and is on its side. Some of the guys from the truck are tending to a woman who is clearly in bad shape. There are probably 8 or 10 police officers, but no ambulance. Finally, several ambulances arrived, one by one, to carry away the injured to the hospital.

There were a ton of men and women in swimsuits helping out and I'm guessing that a few of them were doctors. If it weren't for their assistance, things could have been much worse. At this point, one person died and three are in critical condition. We saw the pilot walk away from the crash, and luckily he's doing ok. This is the second helicopter crash in 4 days and within a few hours, it was one of the top stories on msnbc.com. The crash on Thursday took 4 lives. To make matter worse, there were 3 couples and each spouse lost a loved one. The pilot also died in Thursday's crash.

Story from MSNBC

Story from Kauai's newspaper

Jessica and I took helicopter tour with no doors on our honeymoon and something tells me that it might have been the last time we get on one. I held Jessica tight and told her how much I loved her. Please do the same.