Emotional Dad Awaits Helicopter Crash Findings Two Years Later

Toga Kalougata recalls the day he bid goodbye to his son, 2, who was airlifted on a mercy flight from Naitauba Is­land, Lau to Labasa Hospital.

Epeli Jeremaia (EJ) never made it to Labasa to receive the medical attention desperately he needed.

It has been two years since Mr Kalougata lost his son and wife Taraivosa Moceisuva, who died after the helicopter they were in, crashed into Natewa Bay in Va­nua Levu.

At the time, it was a mercy dash. EJ had gotten sick, and they were airlifted from Naitauba Island in the Lau Group to the Labasa Hos­pital.

The bodies of EJ and pilot Gil­bert Parker were never found because the underwater terrain was uncharted and rugged with extraordinarily strong undersea currents.

Experts involved in the inves­tigation of the crash have yet to discover how the White Robinson ‘R’ 44 helicopter crashed into Na­tewa Bay that fateful evening.

Mr Kalougata has now resigned from his job at Naitauba Island and started his own construction company in Taveuni just to be close to his eight-year-old daugh­ter Anaseini.

“We are good at the moment and now she’s happy that I am here with her,”Mr Kalougata said.

“She is still asking a lot of ques­tions about her mom and EJ.

“I miss my boy EJ because he was my only son.

“Every morning before I left for work, he would always ask me, Tata iko lai job? (Dad you’re go­ing to work?). He tells me to give him a kiss and likewise in the af­ternoon.

“He would have been four years old now and not a day goes by that I don’t think of them,” said the emotional father.

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