California Man Airlifted After Fall at Pīpīwai Trail, Maui

Air One Rescue, file photo.

By Maui Now Staff

A 57-year-old man from Sacramento, California was airlifted from the Pīpīwai Trail in East Maui after losing consciousness during a fall on Monday morning.

Fire officials say the incident was reported at 11:12 a.m. on Monday July 20, 2015, in a bamboo forest roughly two miles above the Haleakalā National Park headquarters in Kīpahulu.

According to department reports, area hikers found the man and called for help.  Authorities say the man had been hiking alone when he fell and lost consciousness for an unknown length of time.

Because of the difficulty in carrying the victim all the way down the trail, the fire department’s Air 1 helicopter was brought in to quickly extricate the man to waiting paramedics, said Maui Fire Services Officer Edward Taomoto.

Park Rangers had already begun carrying the victim down when Air 1 arrived on scene at around 11:45 a.m.

Fire officials say the man was airlifted near the second bridge on Pīpīwai Trail to a landing zone near the park headquarters.  He was then transferred to a medevac helicopter and flown to Maui Memorial Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.

Firefighters from Hāna and a Kahului rescue crew responded to the incident.