4 bodies recovered from wreckage of missing plane in Hawaii

Bodies of four people were recovered from the wreckage of a single-engine, four-seater plane that had crashed in the mountains of the Hawaiian island of Oahu.

A US Coast Guard helicopter spotted the wreckage of the 1969 Beech 19A during a search operation on Saturday (29 July), the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.

The Coast Guard said the plane was reported missing from Daniel K. Inouye International Airport around 10am local time (9pm BST) on Saturday.

The bodies of two men and two women were recovered in the Waianae Mountains near Kunia, near the Palikea and Pohakea trails, Kendall Ching, Honolulu Fire Captain said.

Allen Kenitzer, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman said "round robin pleasure flight" crashed under "unknown circumstances." The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate, he added.

A spokeswoman for Lyssa Chapman, from TV's "Dog the Bounty Hunter", identified the four victims. They were Chapman's friend, Gerrit Evensen, (28), his girlfriend Heather Riley, (27), and their friends Alexis Aaron and Dean Hutton, who was piloting the plane.

Authorities said on Friday the plane, which had left for a sunset flight never returned. According to spokeswoman Mona Wood-Sword, Hutton last communicated with the air traffic control at 6:37pm local time (5:30pm BST) on Friday.

"The families are understandably distraught," and asking for the public's prayers, Wood-Sword said in a statement.

Hutton was aware that the plane had unspecified maintenance issues, but he still decided to fly it, Hutton's uncle told Hawaii News Now.

The owner of the plane as per records is John Mueller of Honolulu.