Auto dealer Clay Watson, daughters injured in helicopter crash in Hawaii
A Chattanooga auto dealer and his two daughters were among a handful of passengers in a tour helicopter that crashed Wednesday evening on a lava field on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Mountain View Automotive Group President Clay Watson and his daughters, Kennedy and Clayton, were among five passengers in a Bell 407 aircraft operated by Paradise Helicopters when the helicopter crashed, according to a family spokesman.
The five passengers and pilot were all injured in the incident and the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the accident, which occurred around 5:29 p.m., local time, on Wednesday. Two of the passengers were seriously injured and one was airlifted to Kona Community Hospital, according to The Associated Press.
“We appreciate the prayers and concerns that have been expressed for our family,” said Taylor Tifton, a brother-in-law of Clay Watson.
Tifton said in a phone interview Friday that the family is still trying to find out more about the accident and the condition of the three family members, so he declined to discuss any details about the incident.
Watson, who heads the Ford dealership in the Mountain View Automotive Group, is also chair of the board of trustees for Girls Preparatory School.
In a statement, K&S Helicopters said all six of those in the helicopter at the time of the crash had to be extricated from the wreck, about a mile from of any roads on the island.
“The care of our passengers, crew members and their families is our highest priority,” Calvin Dorn of K&S Helicopters said in a statement issued after the accident.
The news outlet Civil Beat reported last year that K&S Helicopters was sued by a passenger who was in a 2019 helicopter crash in Hawaii when the company’s aircraft ran out of gas during a chartered flight by Hawaii’s Division of Forestry and Wildlife to monitor seabirds. The state agency said no one was injured during the crash, but the lawsuit claimed the passenger suffered upper-body and head injuries, according to Civil Beat.