A Wisconsin mother and daughter on vacation in Hawaii were among those killed in last week’s helicopter crash on the island of Kauai, authorities say.
Amy Gannon, 47, and her daughter, Jocelyn, 13, of Madison were on the doomed tour chopper that went down Thursday near a remote region featured in the film “Jurassic Park,” killing all seven passengers on board, according to Kauai Police Department.
Also among the dead was a family of four believed to be from Switzerland, authorities said. They were only identified as a 50-year-old woman, 49-year-old man, 13-year-old girl and 10-year old girl. Authorities are waiting on autopsies to positively confirm their identities.
The helicopter’s 69-year-old pilot, Paul Matero, of Wailua, Hawaii, died in the crash, too, officials said.
“Due to the additional recovery efforts, the nature of the crash and impact damage, Kauai police can confirm that there are no survivors,” police said Saturday.
Authorities are still investigating the cause of the crash.
Gannon and her daughter — — an eighth-grader at Hamilton Middle School — traveled to Hawaii for a family trip with her husband, Mike, and 16-year-old son, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. Her husband and son were not on the deadly helicopter ride.
The mom’s friend, Heather Wentler, said Gannon had “been sending pictures all week long of how wonderful their vacation had been.”
Gannon helped co-found a Wisconsin-based nonprofit, the Doyenne Group, with Wentler to mentor women in business, the outlet reported.
“Amy was always bigger than life,” Wentler told the outlet. “We had a joke that she was the ‘yes’ person and I was the ‘let’s think about it’ person.”