The horrific fires on Maui in the past week had claimed 96 lives as of Sunday, and that number\u2019s expected to go higher. Maui\u2019s tourism board says some 46 thousand people have flown off that island, just since Wednesday. Flight crews are stretched so thin by the disaster, a pilot from Colorado cut his own Hawaiian vacation a bit, helping hundreds get home and away from the nation\u2019s deadliest wildfire in more than a century\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(CO Pilot Ends HI Vacation Early wrap\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 1:14)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Eckelcamp family\u2019s trip to the islands got shortened by storms, then by the devastating fires. They were coming back to Colorado early. But dad Vince is a United pilot of more than 30 years, and a 777 expert, a pilot instructor. So he checked in at the airport, offering to help, surprising a ticket agent\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
230814 V Eckelcamp- surprised ticket agent\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 :17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Q:\u2026people out also\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The next day, United\u2019s crew desk called, and Vince, his wife Kathy and their daughter Kallie headed back to the mainland, with some 300 other grateful passengers\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
230814 V Eckelcamp- out of uniform but comfy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 :07\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Q:..kinda nice\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Kallie knows their plane couldn\u2019t have left the island at all, without him\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
230814 K Eckelcamp- so proud of dad\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 :09\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Q:\u2026lot to me\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All three of the Eckelcamps say they\u2019re glad to be home, but are grief-stricken for the Hawaiians who\u2019ve lost everything\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
230814 V Eckelcamp- my small part\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0:09\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Q:\u2026to do it\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TAG– United\u2019s been doing a lot more to help the people of Maui, too. They\u2019ve flown in planes loaded with thousands of blankets, cleaning materials and supplies for the Red Cross\u2026 all going to assist fire victims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The horrific fires on Maui in the past week had claimed 96 lives as of Sunday, and that number\u2019s expected to go higher. Maui\u2019s tourism board says some 46 thousand people have flown off that island, just since Wednesday. Flight crews are stretched so thin by the disaster, a pilot from Colorado cut his own […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rnrnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockymountainnewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockymountainnewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockymountainnewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockymountainnewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockymountainnewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rockymountainnewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1179,"href":"https:\/\/rockymountainnewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1173\/revisions\/1179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockymountainnewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockymountainnewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockymountainnewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}