Seven missing after Hawaiian tour helicopter fails to return

RESCUERS in Hawaii were last night searching for a helicopter carrying seven people that failed to return to its landing spot on “Jurassic Park island”.

The helicopter had six passengers, including two children, on board, as well as the pilot. It was last seen off the coast of Kauai island, where Jurassic Park, the 1993 film, was partly filmed, and was due to return on Thursday at 5.21pm.

The owner of the helicopter contacted the Joint Rescue Coordination Center in Honolulu, which dispatched crews to search the scene. The helicopter is equipped with an electronic locator, but officials said no signals had been received.

Nearly 80 per cent of Kauai is uninhabited and much of the area is a state park, which helicopter tours include as a point of interest.

Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, owns a $100million estate on Kauai.

Trained crews were searching for the helicopter and the seven missing people, said PO Robert Cox, of the US Coast Guard.

Weather conditions could play a factor in the search, officials said, with visibility affected by clouds and rain, and wind gusts of 28mph.

Kauai’s 70,000 residents had been braced for potential flooding, which caused the closure of part of a highway on Christmas Day.

The company that conducted the helicopter tour has not been identified by officials.

Politicians in Hawaii have considered implementing tighter restrictions on aerial tours following a string of deadly incidents.

Three people were killed when a helicopter crashed on a highway in Oahu in April, and a skydiving plane crashed in June, killing 11.

In August, Ed Case, a Democrat representative for Hawaii, introduced in a bill to “impose strict regulations on commercial tour operations”.