HONOLULU -- Authorities released the names of the people who were onboard the helicopter when it crashed on Kauai on Thursday, leaving four people dead and three others critically injured.

Authorities said that John O'Donnell, of East Rockaway, NY; Teri McCarty, of Cabot, Ark.; and Margriet Inglebrecht, of Santa Maria, Calif., and the pilot Joe Sulak died from the crash.

Veronica O'Donnell, James McCarty and Cornelius Scholtz, Inglebrecht's husband, are hospitalized at Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu.

James McCarty works for All State Insurance.

Cornelius Scholtz is a pharmacist.

The Scholtzes' pastor at Pacific Christian Center said the two, both in their early 30s, were married about one year ago.

"They didn't get to go on a honeymoon. So, this is their honeymoon from what I understand," he said. "Everyone who knew them loved them. They were a great young couple. It was really sad."

The O'Donnells were together 25 years. The couple's close friend and next door neighbor in New York said the O'Donnells' two adult children bought them a trip to Hawaii for their 25th wedding anniversary.

Friends said John O'Donnell worked in construction, while his wife Veronica, known by friends as "Bernie," is a nurse.

Relatives of the three couples are in the process of traveling to Hawaii.

Officials and co-workers said Sulak had an "impeccable" safety record.

Sulak is a well-known aviator on Kauai who was called "Helicopter Joe." Friends said he was the chief pilot for Heli-USA.

Sulak learned to fly choppers in the U.S. Army and served in Vietnam. He marketed clothing with the "Helicopter Joe" logo on his Web site, according to his Web site.

The crashed chopper had deployed its pontoon-like emergency floats. A veteran Kauai tour helicopter pilot told KITV, "I see no logical reason why he would have deployed those floats."

The pilot, who has flown for 20 years on Kauai, said the floats would have "made a bad situation even worse," because they disrupt the chopper's air flow and make it more difficult to maneuver the aircraft. He speculated that the floats either deployed inadvertently or deployed on impact.

Federal Aviation Administration records show that the chopper that crashed was built in 1979, and had a turbo-shaft engine. The copter's current airworthiness certificate was issued in 1994.

Investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board arrived on Kauai on Friday to begin its investigation into the fatal crash.