A plane has crashed near Honolulu airport - not a passenger plane

[DeniseM]

2 killed when plane crashed into building near Honolulu airport

A Kamaka Air Cessna 208 Caravan was conducting a training flight when it crashed into a vacant building that was slated for demolition.

www.hawaiinewsnow.com

 

[slip]

2 killed when plane crashed into building near Honolulu airport

A Kamaka Air Cessna 208 Caravan was conducting a training flight when it crashed into a vacant building that was slated for demolition.

www.hawaiinewsnow.com

Everyone on Molokai was holding their breath, thinking it was a Mokulele flight. Terrible thing, especially around the holidays. Prayers to the families.

 

[DeniseM]

It's being reported that this was a cargo plane taking off from the airport and immediately had some kind of control issue:

LISTEN: Audio transmission between air traffic control, pilot before plane crash near airport

Hawaii News Now has obtained new audio between air traffic control and the Kamaka Air pilot before the plane crashed near Honolulu's airport.

www.hawaiinewsnow.com

https://www.kamakaair.com/

 

[Passepartout]

High winds in the area would account for some challenging flight conditions- especially for a small-ish aircraft.

 

[slip]

It's being reported that this was a cargo plane taking off from the airport and immediately had some kind of control issue:

LISTEN: Audio transmission between air traffic control, pilot before plane crash near airport

Hawaii News Now has obtained new audio between air traffic control and the Kamaka Air pilot before the plane crashed near Honolulu's airport.

www.hawaiinewsnow.com

https://www.kamakaair.com/

Yes, Kamaka Air. They help Mokulele at times. I heard all the Mokulele pilots aren't flying today. The Pilot in the crash had helped train the Mokulele pilots.

 

[lynne]

It was confirmed that this was a training flight

 

[JIMinNC]

High winds in the area would account for some challenging flight conditions- especially for a small-ish aircraft.

While it is inappropriate to speculate at this early point, given the communications quoted in the article, plus the dash cam videos, I doubt winds played a role. The videos show the plane in a steep bank and the pilot references control problems:

Tower: Kamaka Flight 689, you’re turning right, correct?
Pilot: Kamaka 689, we are, we have, uh, we’re out of control here.
Tower: Okay, Kamaka 689, if you can land, if you can level it off, that’s fine. Any runway, any place you can do.

High winds can make it more difficult to land or even to takeoff, but a sustained steep bank followed by a crash is not consistent with a wind-induced accident. Some kind of problem with the flight controls or an engine failure followed by a poorly executed attempt to return to the runway would be more plausible explanations. Eventually the NTSB will sort it out.