Kauai chopper company in deadly crash shuts down amid new lawsuit
Hawaii News Now - August 6, 2026
By Dillon Ancheta
A Kauai helicopter tour company involved in a deadly crash back in March has shut down its business as it faces a new lawsuit.
Patrick Haskell, 59, and his wife, Margaret Rimmler, 65, were two of the three people killed when a chopper crashed on Kauai’s north shore in March.
Their loved ones are now suing the company, Airborne Aviation.
“They were pillars of their community in Massachusetts. They were both accomplished business people, and the community that they’re from in Massachusetts is still reeling from their deaths,” said Andrew Robb, partner at the law firm Robb and Robb LLC.
The wrongful death suit alleges 11 counts of negligence against the doors-off helicopter operator, including failure to implement life-saving emergency protocols.
“The allegation is that this helicopter landed on the water and Patrick and Margaret were alive. They were perfectly healthy, alive. They survived the landing. They died because they couldn’t escape. They drowned to death,” Robb said.
Hawaii News Now made several attempts to contact Airborne Aviation for comment on Thursday.
On Friday, we checked back and the business was listed as permanently closed. The message on their website read: “We are no longer offering tour experiences. Thank you to all of our guests for your support over the years.”
The day after the crash, Airborne Aviation’s director of operations, Doug Froning, said in a news conference they would be cooperating fully with the investigation.
Meanwhile, Robb’s law firm has experience with doors-off helicopter crashes. They previously secured a $116 million verdict in a 2018 New York City crash, and also resolved a lawsuit in another 2024 Na Pali Coast chopper crash.
They’re also working with Hawaii-based attorney Jacob Lowenthal in the case.
“It has been alleged in other lawsuits as well that these doors-off lights create an impossible safety paradox, because you’re strapping someone in the helicopter to try to stop them from falling out,” Robb said. “But at the same time you have to allow them the opportunity to escape the helicopter in the event of a foreseeable emergency.”
We also reached out to Airborne Aviation’s attorney, who declined to comment on this story.
