LIHU'E, Kaua'i — One of the people who died in Friday's air tour crash off Kaua'i struggled with a headphone cord as passengers tried to pull on their life vests in the frantic moments before the Heli USA Airways helicopter dropped into the ocean about 200 yards from shore.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Nicole Charnon said a survivor reported helping the victim with the gear, but the passenger later was found unresponsive in the water off Ha'ena on the island's north shore. The body of a second passenger also was recovered from the ocean, and a third was found still strapped into the center front seat of the submerged aircraft.

Charnon did not identify the victims or the survivor who tried to help. She said investigators have not yet studied all the flotation gear from the helicopter and are reviewing how it performed before and after the crash. Under Federal Aviation Administration rules, operators must either equip their helicopters with flotation pontoons or require passengers to wear life vests.

The Heli USA Aerospatiale AS350 aircraft that crashed Friday did not have flotation pontoons.

Pilot Glen Lampton and Beloit, Wis., newlyweds Karen and Bill Thorson Jr. survived. Karen Thorson's father, Laverne Clifton, 68, of Beloit, was among those killed. The retired Chrysler assembly-line worker had brought his wife, Barbara, to Kaua'i as a wedding anniversary present. She elected not to take the helicopter flight Friday. Next Saturday would have marked the couple's 45th anniversary.

Karen Thorson, 44, yesterday called the crash "a fluke" and reconciled her father's death by saying "his number was up," according to a news report on TV station WISN in Milwaukee. She also praised the pilot's actions during the incident, which occurred when the helicopter flew into what has been described as "a wall of rain."

"We were trying to turn away from the storm, but we got caught in the storm before the pilot could turn around," Thorson told WISN.

Although she's not a good swimmer, Thorson said, she managed to get "to the top as fast as I could." Her husband found Clifton's body and tried to resuscitate the man to no avail, she told the TV station.

The Thorsons were married Sept. 17, according to friend Carol Alexander. The couple arrived in Hawai'i Sept. 19 for their honeymoon, traveling with Karen's parents, said Alexander, who was among the 300 people at the wedding.

"The reason Karen's parents came was they were celebrating their wedding anniversary," Alexander said. "They had never been to Hawai'i. Karen's dad wanted to treat his wife to the trip of a lifetime, so the four of them went together."

Karen Thorson is an evidence technician with the Beloit Police Department, Alexander said. Bill Thorson Jr. is 48.

Lampton, 43, has been flying on Kaua'i only two months, but previously worked as a pilot for the Houston Police Department and the WHAS11 television station in Louisville, Ky., where he graduated from Trinity High School in 1979.

John Power, vice president of Heli USA, which also has operations on O'ahu, in Las Vegas and at the Grand Canyon, said the pilot has been flying helicopters for 26 years. "His background is with the Houston Police Department with the Helicopter Division," Power said. "He is very familiar with flying those machines."

Although new to Kaua'i, the pilot "was fully trained and has operated those tours. He had flown numerous tours in that time and was familiar with the island," Power said.

The flight had left Lihu'e Airport at 1:54 p.m. Friday on a circle-island tour, Power said. The aircraft ran into trouble about 30 minutes into the tour as the aircraft flew past the rugged Na Pali coastline, he said.

The NTSB's Charnon said her interviews with the survivors indicated they had seen a rainstorm some distance away but flew into it. The pilot was not sure of his altitude but told officials he normally flew through the area at about 2,000 feet.

The helicopter experienced a "major descent" and then rose again before dropping and hitting the ocean, Charnon said.

"Several mayday calls were made and the pilot did tell passengers to get ready to evacuate," she said.

Many Hawai'i tour helicopter firms provide each passenger with a life- vest pouch on a strap around their waists, along with training in how to remove their headphones and then pull the inflatable vest over their heads. FAA spokeswoman Holly Baker said that type of life preserver meets an agency regulation for over-water flights by tour helicopters without floats. The agency requires that "each person on board the helicopter is wearing approved flotation gear."

Charnon said investigators have not yet concluded that Heli USA's passenger safety briefing met FAA requirements, but she said one of the survivors recalled being told about ditching procedures and being instructed to remove headphones before pulling the life vest over the head.

Helicopter experts say panic and confusion in such situations is one reason why the Coast Guard, Navy and some state and county agencies require passengers in helicopters to have their life vests completely on when they fly.

"People really do panic" if they don't have extensive training in how to react when an aircraft must ditch, said Richard Magyar of Kaua'i, a 26-year Navy veteran who gives training in water survival and evacuation in aircraft emergencies. He said that when he trains law enforcement and other officials, he insists they wear their life vests with the over-the-head portions in place. That way there is less chance of entanglement with communication cables.

Similarly, the Coast Guard, which requires training for anyone who flies aboard its helicopters, requires that life vests be worn during flight, said Lt. Cmdr. Thomas Meyer, an H-65 Dolphin pilot at Air Station Barbers Point.

Charnon said the NTSB has in the past recommended flotation pontoons or similar gear for any helicopter that flies over water, but the FAA gave operators two options: Either have the floats or have passengers wear life vests.

On July 14, 1994, two nearly identical tour helicopters crashed in Hawai'i waters: An Aerospatiale AS350D lost engine power and crashed off Kaua'i's Na Pali Coast, without floats; and an Aerospatiale AS350B with floats lost rotor revolutions off the north shore of Moloka'i.

All seven people aboard each helicopter were alive after the rotors stopped moving. But the Kaua'i helicopter sank. Passengers never got to the life vests under their seats, and three of the seven — including the pilot — drowned.

The Moloka'i helicopter landed on the water, and the pilot and passengers had time to put on their gear and swim ashore to await rescue.

Beloit police Capt. Tyler said that Karen Thorson told him that the bad weather and crash all happened very quickly.

"When they hit the water, it flipped over and flooded very quickly with water," Tyler said. "The need to get out was evident."

The one passenger who did not get out, a woman, was found Friday by Kaua'i Fire Department personnel in the wreckage at a depth of 20 to 25 feet, her life vest in place over her head, uninflated, and her seat belt fastened.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com and Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com.