Cruise ship captain from Bainbridge assists in rescue of downed pilot

Published 11:52 am Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Eric van der Wal of Bainbridge Island will certainly have an amazing story to tell when he gets home from his cruise around Hawaii.

Van der Wal is captain of the ms Veendam, a Holland America Line cruise ship that was called off course this weekend to rescue a pilot who had to ditch his single-engine airplane into the ocean after it ran out of gas hundreds of miles off the coast of Hawaii.

The Veendam left San Diego, Calif. on Jan. 20 for an 18-day “Circle Hawaii” cruise and was on the way to Lahaina, Hawaii, when van der Wal and his crew answered a call for help from the Coast Guard.

The emergency? Louis Morton, the pilot of a Cirrus SR-22 that was flying to Kahului, Hawaii, made a distress call to the Hawaii National Guard about 12:30 p.m. Sunday when he was about 1,000 miles north of the Big Island.

The pilot told authorities he had about three hours of fuel left and would have to ditch the plane about 230 miles northeast of Maui.

Morton, a Seattle pilot, was reportedly delivering the Cirrus from Wichita, Kansas to Australia.

An extra fuel tank had been installed on the plane during a stop in Tracy, California, according to news reports, but the aircraft developed problems when fuel was unable to reach the engine as it continued on toward its planned stop in Kahului.

The Coast Guard was notified after Morton called for help and launched an HC-130 Hercules airplane and an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from Air Station Barbers Point to the area. Officials also contacted the Veendam for assistance.

The Coast Guard told Morton to fly toward the cruise ship, and Morton deployed the Cirrus’s full-plane parachute at 4:44 p.m. Sunday.

Coast Guard video of the crash landing shows the airplane’s propellor slowly coming to a stop and a large parachute shooting out from the plane’s tail.

The parachute inflated and the plane drifted underneath for nearly four minutes before it plopped belly first in the water. Morton got out of the cockpit and stepped onto the left wing of the plane before it flipped over a minute later and began to sink.

Morton jumped into the ocean just as the plane capsized and climbed into a small one-man raft to wait for a rescue boat; seas were 9 to 12 feet with winds of 25 to 28 mph at the time.

The Veendam crew was able to pull the pilot aboard a life raft about 20 minutes later and take him back to the cruise ship.

Morton was reported in good condition after his rescue. The crew gave him food and accommodations, and Morton stepped back on dry land when the ship docked Monday, Jan. 26, at Lahaina.

Officials with Holland America Line praised the quick work of van der Wal’s crew.

“Congratulations to the team on ms Veendam for coming to the aid of the pilot and for working together with the Coast Guard to conduct this successful rescue operation,” Orlando Ashford, president of Holland America Line, said in a statement. “January has been an eventful month for our ships with several rescues around the world, and we are honored to be able to assist in any distress situation when needed.”

Officials with Holland America Line said the incident marked the third rescue at sea by one of their ships already this year.

On Jan. 3, ms Zuiderdam rescued eight people from a sinking vessel in the Caribbean, and on Jan. 4, ms Zaandam came to the aid of seven crew members who were stranded at the Arctowski Polish research station at King George Island in Antarctica.