Hawaiian Electric to inspect Big Island transmission lines by helicopter

Helicopters will sweep Hawaii Island’s major transmission corridors from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Friday, June 26, as Hawaiian Electric looks for small defects before they become outages or safety hazards. The utility said the flights are quarterly aerial inspections of its overhead transmission lines, and the work will be done by Manuiwa Airways.

The company said the exact route and timing will depend on weather, but residents across Big Island County should expect to hear the aircraft overhead during the four-day window. In some areas, the helicopter may fly lower and slower than usual so inspectors can get close enough to examine poles and lines for damage that could otherwise go unnoticed until service is disrupted.

Hawaiian Electric said the inspections are being conducted to improve system reliability. That matters on Hawaii Island, where long transmission corridors cross rough terrain and distant communities, making preventive maintenance more important than waiting for a fault to show up as a neighborhood outage. The utility’s community contact number for questions or concerns is 1-855-304-9191.

The helicopter work also fits into a broader grid-hardening push that has accelerated since the 2023 Maui wildfires and windstorm. Hawaiian Electric said it began developing its Wildfire Safety Strategy in 2019, updated it in 2023 and later expanded that effort into its 2025-2027 plan. The Hawaii Public Utilities Commission approved that wildfire mitigation plan on Dec. 31, 2025, saying it can be reasonably expected to reduce wildfire risk.

Hawaiian Electric has also said it is using drones for aerial inspections in identified wildfire-risk areas on Hawaii Island, Maui County and Oahu, part of the same effort to spot defects earlier and improve situational awareness. Earlier helicopter inspections elsewhere in the company’s service territory found albizia overgrowth choking transmission corridors in East Honolulu, a reminder of the kinds of hidden problems these flights are designed to catch before they spread into larger service failures.

For Big Island residents, the key question is not whether the helicopter will be there, but what it is looking for: weakened hardware, damaged poles, sagging conductors or vegetation problems that could threaten reliability. Hawaiian Electric’s latest inspection cycle suggests the utility is trying to catch those failures before they reach homes, schools and businesses.