A St. Paul man is among the 11 victims killed when their skydiving plane crashed last week in Hawaii, authorities said Monday.
The man was identified as Nikolas Glebov, 28, according to the Honolulu medical examiner’s office, which identified seven of the 11 victims. The others included a Colorado couple in their 20s celebrating their first wedding anniversary, a Navy sailor and three Hawaii residents.
Glebov worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on board a fisheries survey ship based in Kodiak, Alaska, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.
NOAA spokesman David Hall told the newspaper Glebov was a general vessel assistant on the NOAA Ship Oscar Dyson.
The skydiving plane crashed shortly after takeoff on Friday at a small airfield north on Honolulu used by skydivers and the U.S. Army.
The National Transportation Safety Board on Monday called on the Federal Aviation Administration to tighten its regulations governing parachute operations.
The NTSB recommended to the FAA more than a decade ago that it strengthen its rules on pilot training, aircraft maintenance and inspection, and FAA oversight, board member Jennifer Homendy told a news conference in Honolulu.
She said the FAA hasn’t acted on those recommendations.
“Are we trying to put the FAA on notice for this? Yes,” Homendy said. “We identified several safety concerns in 2008 with respect to parachute jump operations. Accidents continue to happen. There have been fatalities since that time.”
The FAA said in a statement it’s implemented a number of changes to addresses NTSB’s recommendations, including requiring safety inspectors to increase their monitoring of parachute operations. It said it revised safety guidance for parachute operators and increased safety outreach.
“The safety of all aircraft operations is the FAA’s top priority,” the statement said.
Homendy said FAA regulations for skydiving flights aren’t as stringent as those for air tours and airlines. For example, she said parachute operators aren’t required to act on manufacturer service bulletins, which are similar to manufacturer recalls.
Homendy said there have been 80 accidents and 19 deaths involving skydiving flights since 2008.
Relatives told KCNC-TV that Hawaii crash victims Ashley and Bryan Weikel of Colorado Springs were excited to go skydiving, but Bryan’s mother, Kathy Reed-Gerk, begged him not to go.
Bryan’s brother Kenneth Reed wrote on Facebook that his brother was “the absolute best person in the world” and that his wife was his “identical soul mate.”
The Navy said Lt. Joshua Drablos, 27, was “an invaluable member” of the U.S. Fleet Cyber Command, based in Kunia, Hawaii. The medical examiner said Drablos was a Virginia resident but the Navy listed his home of record as Maryland.
Jordan Tehero of Hawaii’s Kauai Island was a budding videographer who fell in love with skydiving.
His father, Garret, told the Associated Press the 23-year-old took up skydiving a few years ago as a distraction from the breakup of a relationship. Then he “fell in love” with the sport, he said.
The other two Hawaii residents were Daniel Herndon and Michael Martin.
Autopsies found all 11 victims died of multiple blunt-force injuries from the crash.
The identities of the remaining four victims will be released once they have been confirmed, the medical examiner’s office said.
The victims included 10 men and one woman.
The Beechcraft King Air was carrying skydivers from the Oahu Parachute Center, a North Shore business about an hour’s drive north of Honolulu.
The same plane sustained substantial damage to its tail section in a 2016 accident while carrying skydivers over Northern California. Repairs were then made to get the plane back into service, and those records along with inspection reports on the plane are part of the NTSB’s investigation.
Federal investigators flew to Hawaii to conduct the probe of the crash. They expect to release a preliminary report in about two weeks, but the final report — which will include the cause of the crash — could take up to two years to be released.
Jordan Tehero’s parents both expressed worries over his new hobby.
“Because of our fear, we wanted him to stop,” the father said. “But he didn’t have the fear that we had, so he just continued.”
Any fears he may have had were taken care of with prayer. “He always told me, ‘Dad, I pray before every flight, before every jump I pray,’ “ the father said.
Friday’s crash was the deadliest civil aviation accident in the United States since a 2011 Reno Air Show wreck killed a pilot and 10 spectators in Nevada.
