COLLEEN CAIN

Photo: U.S. Coast Guard

By Vinny Del Giudice

On Jan. 7, 1982, Lieutenant Colleen A. Cain, the U.S. Coast Guard's first female helicopter pilot, died in the crash of an HH-52 chopper at Hawaii's Molokai Ridge, responding to an emergency at sea. 

Cain, 29, was the co-pilot of the orange-and-white craft, CG-1420. She received her wings in 1979 as Coast Guard Aviator #1988. 

The pilot, Lieutenant Commander H. W. Johnson, 34, and a crewman, Aviation Machinist Mate 2nd Class David L. Thompson, 23, also died responding to the distress call from the Pan Am, a 74-foot fishing boat taking on water off Maui.

Weather conditions were abysmal.

Their helicopter lifted off at 4 a.m. into torrential rains and heavy winds from Air Station Barbers Point. Radio contact was lost about 5:15 a.m. The wreckage was located that afternoon on a steep slope at an elevation of 2,200 feet. Cain and Johnson were pinned in the wreckage. Thompson's body was located nearby. 

The fishing boat was assisted by others and towed to shore.

Coast Guardsman Michael Fratta, who was on duty at the air station, recalled that day in a post on the Airborne Public Safety Association website, written in 2010:

"I was a non-rate seaman standing security watch the evening of her final flight. My recollection of the weather that night is still vivid in my mind. The winds were howling and it was pouring rain, as they taxied to the heli-pad for takeoff. I could hardly believe the crew was prepared to take their single engine helicopter offshore in these extreme conditions."

In 1981, Cain, who hailed from Burlington, Iowa, was awarded the Coast Guard's Achievement Medal for resuscitating a 3-year-old boy injured in a boating accident, according to a dispatch by United Press International.

Johnson, of Orange, California, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, seldom given in peacetime, for a 1976 rescue, UPI said. Thompson was from Sequim, Washington.