KEKAHA, Hawaii (KHON2) -- Kauai officials identified Jim Quintua, 60, and Amy Nichole Ruark Quintua, 53, as the two mainland passengers on board the helicopter that went down off the Na Pali coast on Thursday.
Officials said Kauai Ocean Safety was able to recover Amy's body on Thursday.
After over 60 hours of searching over 830 square miles, the U.S. Coast Guard and other partners, called off the search for Mr. Quintua and the pilot, Guy Croydon, 69, on Sunday afternoon.
"They may have been tourists, but Jimmy was a Molokai boy," said cousin Johnessa Quintua. His mom and my father were brothers and sisters.
She said Jimmy was born in Kaunakakai, and in the 80s, his mother moved the family to Kentucky. It was there that he met Amy Nichole Ruark and fell in love.
"They would have gave the shirt off their back, they were such loving and caring people," his cousin continued. "So, this one really hit everybody by surprise, and it hit everybody hard."
He would visit home every summer, and just saw the family on Molokai over the 4th of July weekend.
"Then went to Maui, then they came here, and the final part of the trip was to Kauai, and it's not the first time they've done that helicopter tour, they've done it before, it's just...thing's took a different turn on this trip which is very hard," Johnessa Quntua added.
She said officials called his son's back on the mainland to let them know their helicopter had crashed. "Then you're like, what the heck? What do you mean? No, this can't be true. Then you do the thing, you call their numbers and it goes straight to voicemail, you call the other ones and it goes to voicemail and it's like you're so far away, you can't do anything and you just want to go there and hug them," she added while crying.
She said she's happy rescue crews were able to find Nichole, but said it's hard to find closure when her cousin and the pilot were not found.
For now, she said it's the little things that helps them know Jimmy is okay.
"I spoke to my cousin this morning, and she told me that she always had this gardenia plant that she planted and gardenia was her mom's favorite flower. So she planted it, and all these years that she's had it, it never had any flowers," Johnessa said. "She could never get a flower off of it, and it just so happened this morning, she smelled this gardenia smell, and she said when she went outside and looked at her plant, it had flowers on it. And, you know, it's just a sign that, you know, that Jimmy's okay, he's with us, he's fine."
Even Jimmy's dog, Koa, back in Kentucky was howling around the time the helicopter crashed. Something the dog never does, the family said.
She said she wants to thank everyone for their prayers during this difficult time.
"It means a lot to all of us, it's the little things you know? Sometimes we take for granted. Tomorrow is never promised, so love your loved ones and tell them you love them, because you never know the last time you're going to see them," she added.
Alii Kauai Air Tours and Charters has not responded to KHON2's request for comment.
The pilot's family has asked for privacy.
An old friend from high school said Croydon was focused on safety when he did the same helicopter tour two years ago.
Mark Anderson, went to St. Louis High School on Oahu, he moved to Illinois many years ago, but when he brought his wife back to Hawaii recently he knew he wanted to do a helicopter tour of the beautiful Na Pali Coast.
"My older sister said call Guy Croydon, who she dated in high school and was a pilot," said Anderson. "I knew he was an airline pilot, but I didn't know he was a helicopter pilot. So we did our research and I reached out to Guy and made plans."
He said it was great to see an old friend, and after talking story, Croydon got serious when going over the safety briefing of the helicopter. "He got serious for 15 to 20 minutes, and went through safety precautions with us," Anderson added.
"He went over water safety with us, and said if we got into trouble and we were going down, he said he would do it over the ocean because it would give us the best chance of surviving," Anderson added. "That tour was one of the most invigorating things we've ever done, we were scared out of our minds but Guy was so awesome and made us feel okay, you could tell he lived on Kauai for a long time, he knew so much about the island and was our own tour guide."
He said it was one of the most amazing experiences he and his wife ever had on a helicopter.
"I was shocked [when I heard it was Guy], not for one minute did we ever feel like we were in danger when we were on the helicopter, and there were some gusty winds that shook the chopper when we were up there, but he never batted an eye, he had it in control the whole time, we never felt in jeopardy," Anderson added.
"I just feel terrible for his family and the other couple who were passengers on the chopper," he added.
The NTSB has not assigned an investigator to the crash yet.