By Mary Malloy
The crash also killed Margriet Inglebrecht, 19, of Santa Maria, Calif., and Teri McCarty, 47, of Cabot, Ark. The pilot, Joseph Sulak of Princeville, Kauai, also died.
The O'Donnells were vacationing in Hawaii, celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. The trip was a surprise gift from their children, daughter Lorraine, 24, and son David, 23.
"He was a great guy, just too young to die," said a neighbor and close friend of O'Donnell's,Tony Crescitelli. "I have few friends, and he was one of them - he was my fishing partner."
Crescitelli said that the O'Donnells moved to East Rockaway from Valley Stream three years ago, "and we bonded instantly. John was a workaholic, but always had time for his friends. He was Mr. Fix-it on the block, always helping everyone else." O'Donnell traveled to Manhattan six days a week, leaving the house before 6 a.m., Crescitelli said.
O'Donnell was born in New York, but grew up in County Mayo, Ireland, where he met Veronica, who lived just 20 miles away. They were married by age 20, and soon moved to Sunnyside, Queens. In the 1980s they found a house in Valley Stream, and John worked as a foreman for a construction company. Veronica, who is also known as Bernie, is a nurse at Winthrop-University Hospital.
Jessie Mirabile of Valley Stream went to school with Lorraine, and her parents are close friends of the O'Donnell family. "He had a really good sense of humor," Mirabile said of John. "I never saw him in a bad mood. They were always great to me when I was at their house. They have the greatest Irish brogues." She said the families still get together for occasions, and that hers is devastated by John's death.
The O'Donnells boarded the helicopter with two other couples for a scenic tour of Kauai. Sulak was a veteran pilot with "a very clean record," according to Federal Aviation Administration Pacific Region spokesman Ian Gregor. Before attempting to land, Sulak radioed that he was having problems with his hydraulics, and the seven-seat helicopter crash-landed on an airport runway shortly afterward. The front of the cockpit was crushed, its tail boom was broken, one of three main rotors had snapped in at least two places, and it was perched atop two inflatable floats. It was not clear whether the floats, designed for emergency water landings, inflated before the attempted landing or opened on impact.
A member of each of the three couples died in the crash. Bernie O'Donnell, James McCarty and Cornelius Scholtz, Inglebrecht's husband, are being treated at the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu. The hospital confirmed that it had crash victims in its care, but would not provide any information on their conditions.
According to Crescitelli's wife, Rosemary, O'Donnell has undergone surgery and is doing well. Lorraine, a nurse at Lenox Hill Hospital, and David, a financial adviser, flew to Honolulu last weekend to be with their mother. "The kids are there with her, and she knows about her husband," said Rosemary. "She was taken off the respirator." Rosemary said they have a phone chain set up to pass on information.
The National Transportation Safety Board has launched an investigation of the crash. The FAA's Gregor said that an FAA investigator was on the island that day, but that the NTSB would lead the probe and the FAA would make no statements. Gregor cautioned patience among those awaiting an explanation for the crash. "These things can take months, into years," he said. "It's still early. We don't know what happened."
A second tour helicopter crash on Kauai occurred three days hours after the one that killed O'Donnell, taking the life of a California man and leaving three others injured, including a 51-year-old New Hampshire woman who was paralyzed from the waist down, according to New Hampshire television station WMUR.
"Both of them were so looking forward to this trip," Tony Crescitelli said of the O'Donnells. "I guess I've been lucky so far, but this is the closest person to me who has died. John was an incredible friend - he was a peach. I still don't want to believe it ... it's still slowly sinking in that he's gone."
Reporter Jan TenBruggencate of the Honolulu Advertiser contributed to this story. Comments about it? MMalloy@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 202.
