December 27 isn’t a good one for the international aviation industry as an aircraft has been declared missing.
In the United States, the Coast Guard Joint Rescue Command Centre in Honolulu said they were searching for a tour helicopter with seven people on board.
The news came hours after more than a dozen people died after a Bek Air plane with almost 100 people on board crashed near the city of Almaty in Kazakhstan.
The command centre said the search is carried out on both air and in the water, adding that the tour helicopter was due to be back from a tour off the Kauai Napali coast in Hawaii on Thursday evening.
The missing aircraft is equipped with an electronic locator but no signals have been received, Sputnik reports.
One pilot and six passengers were on board, and two of the passengers are believed to be minors.
The Coast Guard said it had launched an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter, a cutter as well as other resources to search for the missing aircraft.
According to Robert Cox, Petty Officer 1st Class of the Coast Guard Joint Rescue Command Centre in Honolulu, weather conditions in the search area are difficult with low visibility and strong winds.
