A passenger on a Hawaiian Airlines flight out of Kona says he and others were startled when the aircraft abruptly aborted takeoff and turned off the runway. What they saw moments later surprised them even more -- another jet landing on the same runway.

The passenger who asked to remain anonymous -- says the pilot immediately apologized and then shared information that stunned them again. the control tower at Kona closed before their flight took off.
Hawaiian Airlines flight 1117 was scheduled for take off from Kona Airport just before 10:30 p.m last Thursday.

"The controller said I can't release you right now I have got a aircraft on final it will be a couple of minutes," said Scott Sorenson of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. "So basically these guys were head on."

The pilot then requests and is granted VFR departure, essentially departing at his own risk. A passenger on board recalls the feeling of acceleration.

"I would estimate halfway down the runway it abruptly began to decelerate and brake when it got towards the end of the runway -- the pilots were able to stop the plane -- they turned it off the runway --and a few moments later an oncoming plane landed behind us," he said.

"People had their hands up against the seats in front of them to brace themselves."

Hawaiian Airlines Chief Pilot Ray Moudy says the pilot did the right thing. He said in a statement: "When alerted of the inbound aircraft, our captain responded exactly as he was supposed to by briskly exiting the runway."

"They announced to the passengers that they had done an aborted take off -- they apologized and said that they were being cautious because the tower was either closed or not staffed at the time," said the passenger.

The fact is five of Hawaii's airport towers are closed at night. Kona from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m., Lihue during the same hours, Molokai from 6:30 p.m. until 6 a.m., Hilo from 10 til 6 and Maui from 11 til 6.

"We have towers like that all over the country and the operations there are absolutely safe," said Ian Gregor of the Federal Aviation Administration.

"I know that Kona has probably three-four airplanes after 10 o'clock at night that are still departing they're sitting on the ground waiting to go," said Sorenson. "Maui closes at 11 o'clock at night -- they used to have 9 or 10 aircraft sitting on the ground waiting to go -- with no controller looking at them. "

"I was bit concerned to hear more than anything that there wasn't people staffing the tower," said the passenger.

Sorenson believes the Kona incident was avoidable. "This here shows obviously that safety was compromised."

According to THE U.S. Department of Transportation -- annual savings to taxpayers as a result of the contract tower program is 173 million dollars nationwide.

"The reason the government contracted out the towers is to save money -- and the reason the people take over the contract is to make money," said Sorenson. "So now we have a service industry or safety industry that's being contracted out for profits."

"It is a little worrisome that this could happen or this could happen more that now there's flights later in the evening," said the passenger.

The FAA is not investigating the Kona flight because no laws were violated.

Ron may be reached at rmizutani@khon2.com or ph. 591-4202.