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(Reuters) - A senior Hawaii health official who rose to prominence when she released to President Barack Obama a copy of his birth certificate in 2011 was killed on Wednesday in a plane crash off the island of Molokai, officials said on Thursday.
All of the plane's seven other passengers and the pilot survived with various injuries, including one who swam to shore, U.S. Coast Guard search and rescue controller Darin McCracken said.
Loretta Fuddy, director of the Hawaii Department of Health, was killed in the crash, which took place northwest of the island's Kalaupapa peninsula, according to department official Fenix Grange. Her deputy Keith Yamamoto survived.
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Amid accusations from so-called "birthers" who erroneously claimed Obama was not born in the United States, an attorney for the president wrote to Fuddy in April 2011 requesting the release to the White House of a long-form version of the president's birth certificate.
Days later, Fuddy sent a letter to Obama saying she was releasing to him copies of the original certificate of live birth. She said that "in recognition of your status as President of the United States," she was making an exception to her department's policy of only releasing a computer-generated certified copy.