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Transair cargo jet crash lands off coast of Hawaii

Company offers interisland air cargo service

A container being loaded into a Transair 737-200 cargo jet. (Photo Transair)

A Boeing 737 cargo jet made an emergency nighttime landing in open water off the Hawaii coast early Friday and both pilots were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Federal Aviation Administration confirmed.

Aviation tracking websites Flightaware.com and Flightradar24.com identified the plane as a 737-200 cargo jet operated by Transair, an interisland operator of scheduled and cargo flights. 

Transair is the brand name for Rhoades Aviation Inc. It has a fleet of five 737 and five Bombardier SD3-60-300 aircraft that fly daily to Kauai, Maui, Kona and Hilo with extended service to Lanai and Molokai, according to its website.

The pilots reported they were having engine trouble and were attempting to return to  Honolulu before ditching the plane in the early-morning hours. The flight was en route to Maui. One of the pilots was in critical condition at Queens Medical Center and the other was taken to a fire station for observations, ABC News reported.


The plane was built by Boeing in 1975 and joined Transair in 2014, according to Flightradar24.com.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the cause of the accident.

In February, Transair placed an order with Miami-based Aeronautical Engineers Inc. to convert a 737-400 passenger plane into a freighter. The reconstruction was scheduled to begin in June.

Click here for more FreightWaves/American Shipper stories by Eric Kulisch.


3 Comments

  1. Neville HILL

    The news item re the ditching of the aircraft noted below…
    F Y I… Shorts (Belfast) building the “SD3-60-300” (Shorts 360) a great aircraft in its day and excellent freighter for short-haul, light/bulky Express items for overnight delivery.

    Quote (in part)…
    Transair is the brand name for Rhoades Aviation Inc. It has a fleet of five 737 and five Bombardier SD3-60-300 aircraft that fly daily to Kauai, Maui, Kona and Hilo with extended service to Lanai and Molokai, according to its website…. unquote.

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Eric Kulisch

Eric is the Supply Chain and Air Cargo Editor at FreightWaves. An award-winning business journalist with extensive experience covering the logistics sector, Eric spent nearly two years as the Washington, D.C., correspondent for Automotive News, where he focused on regulatory and policy issues surrounding autonomous vehicles, mobility, fuel economy and safety. He has won two regional Gold Medals and a Silver Medal from the American Society of Business Publication Editors for government and trade coverage, and news analysis. He was voted best for feature writing and commentary in the Trade/Newsletter category by the D.C. Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. He won Environmental Journalist of the Year from the Seahorse Freight Association in 2014 and was the group's 2013 Supply Chain Journalist of the Year. In December 2022, he was voted runner up for Air Cargo Journalist by the Seahorse Freight Association. As associate editor at American Shipper Magazine for more than a decade, he wrote about trade, freight transportation and supply chains. Eric is based in Portland, Oregon. He can be reached for comments and tips at [email protected]