Holding out hope that he still could be alive, the U.S. Coast Guard expanded its efforts yesterday to locate the missing pilot of an HH-65 Dolphin helicopter that crashed in waters five miles south of Honolulu International Airport Thursday night, killing three of four crewmen.

The Guard yesterday brought in the 378-foot Coast Guard cutter Rush, with its crew of some 140, to take command of a staging area about 15 miles out to sea. Honolulu Fire Department personnel continued their boat and helicopter search closer to the crash site.

A Coast Guard spokesman said exterior panels from the Dolphin were discovered during the afternoon in the area where rescuers believe the pilot could have drifted.

"As long as we've got a chance of survivability we're going to saturate the area," said Coast Guard spokesman Lt. John Titchen.

And although the total search area now covers more than 2,500 square miles, Titchen said the search had become more pinpointed due to the unusual fact that the helicopter's exact impact location was known.

"This is one of those rare cases where we've got a specific location and very accurate information (about) where he would drift. That's really what we're doing today."

Using a sophisticated search-and-rescue computer model that takes into account the point of impact in relation to such factors as wind speeds, water temperatures, sea currents and tidal shift, the Coast Guard is better able to determine how far and where the missing pilot had likely drifted, he said.

Titchen said finding the exterior panels did not diminish the chances that the pilot could be found alive.

"Not at all," he said. "In fact, it actually corresponds with the search area."

exercise gone awry?

The crew of the downed helicopter had been performing a routine rescue exercise Thursday night with a Honolulu Station lifeboat when the crash occurred.

Coast Guard officials received a distress signal from the 47-foot vessel participating in the exercise before the helicopter went down at 8:15 p.m. It's also known that there was a malfunction problem with a line that lowered a rescue basket from the Dolphin to the lifeboat.

But Titchen said it is too early to speculate about the cause of the crash. He said the National Transportation Safety Board would be conducting the crash investigation and would be releasing the information about a cause.

The Coast Guard identified the crewmembers killed as co-pilot Lt. Cmdr. Andrew Wischmeier, 44, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; rescue swimmer Petty Officer 1st Class David Skimin, 38, of San Bernardino, Calif.; and flight mechanic Petty Officer 2nd Class Joshua Nichols, 27, of Gloucester, Va.

The fourth crewmember has not been identified.

The three crewmembers were all recovered by HFD boats, transferred to another Dolphin helicopter and taken to The Queen's Medical Center, where they were pronounced dead.

'HAVE TO HOLD OUT HOPE'

Sue Wischmeier, wife of Andrew Wischmeier, said yesterday that if it's possible to survive a helicopter crash at sea, the pilot of the downed Dolphin would be one to do it.

"I've been told he's an excellent swimmer," said Wischmeier, of Kane'ohe, who was married to Andrew Wischmeier for eight years.

"And I will tell you that they are all trained to get out," said Sue Wischmeier, who knew all the crewmembers well and is herself a former member of the Coast Guard.

"Their job is to endure a lot of physical stress. So, you just have to hold out hope."

Wischmeier described her husband, "Andy," as "a joker, kidding kind of guy," who's seen smiling broadly in almost every photo taken of him.

"Everybody who knew him loved him," she said. "He was just a very fun, loveable guy."

He also loved his 19 years with the Coast Guard, took the job of rescuing others extremely seriously and had received the Coast Guard's Air Medal for a rescue he conducted in Alaska, she said.

"It's a dangerous job, whether they're saving someone, or doing a training mission; it's always a risky situation. And they don't take it lightly."

MASSIVE RESCUE EFFORT

She said she was encouraged by the extraordinary measures the Coast Guard has taken to find the missing pilot.

Those efforts include more than 60 sorties in the search area and the efforts of a multitude of federal, state and county agencies including HFD, the Navy, Air Force, Hawai'i Air National Guard, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Honolulu Police Department.

The Rush, a high-endurance Coast Guard cutter, is designed for long-range search-and-rescue and law enforcement missions. It had been bound for America Samoa out of Pearl Harbor, but was called in to command the search for the missing pilot.

Titchen said it is unusual for such a large craft to be involved in the search for a single person.

Rear Adm. Manson K. Brown, commander of the 14th Coast Guard District who visited the Rush and Honolulu Station crews yesterday, expressed his gratitude to the many agencies that have assisted in the search.

"Our hearts are with the loved one of our lost aviators," Brown said in a statement. "But, we have an active search and we'll continue while there's a chance of survival."