On March 31, 2008, Aloha Airlines operated its final passenger flight, Aloha Flight AQ 251 from Kahului, Maui to Honolulu. Aloha's most senior pilot, Captain Darryl Wong (pictured at right), was the pilot in command of the Boeing 737-200 for that historic flight. The final flight came just a day after Aloha Airlines announced it was shutting down its passenger operations.News reports said that Captain Mike Moore had been scheduled to fly the flight, but had relinquished the cockpit at the last minute to Captain Wong, who joined the company in 1976. In addition to flying for Aloha, Wong is a major general in the Hawaii Air National Guard. "It was very nice that they wanted me to fly, so I was very honored," he said.
In the right seat of Flight AQ 251 was First Officer Tasha Kobashigawa, Aloha's most junior pilot. Ms. Kobashigawa, who used to be a news reporter for Honolulu TV station KITV, joined Aloha Airlines just four months ago. An article about Aloha's final passenger flight in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin quoted Ms. Kobashigawa, who said, "You get to a place where you think you're going to be for the rest of your career and in a blink of an eye it's gone. I'm going to stay in flying. It's my passion. I worked too hard to let it go."
Flight attendants on the final Aloha Airlines passenger flight were Renee Jewell, Steve Oshiro and Tori Swoish.
[Photo Source]
