National Guard helicopter crashes in Idaho, Mendon share striking similarities
Two weeks after a fatal military helicopter crash in Mendon, the same type of helicopter crashed while on a routine training flight in Idaho Tuesday night killing the three pilots aboard.
On Tuesday night, three members of the Idaho Army National Guard died in a helicopter crash near Boise, the National Guard confirmed in a statement posted on social media Wednesday morning.
Col. Christopher Burt, the Idaho Army National Guard's state aviation officer, said that last contact with the crew came at 7:45 p.m. An emergency transmitter locator device was activated after 8 p.m., prompting a team to begin search and rescue operations.
The crew and helicopter were located shortly after midnight on Wednesday.
“This is a tremendous loss to the Idaho National Guard and our community,” said Maj. Gen. Michael Garshak, adjutant general of Idaho and commander of the Idaho National Guard. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones as we work through this tragedy.”
Robert Taylor, an Idaho National Guard spokesperson, did not release additional details about the crash. He expected the identities of the Guard members killed to be made public within a day.
The cause of the crash, like that of the crash in Mendon, was not immediately known and an investigation was underway.
The Mendon crash
More: Investigation at Mendon helicopter crash site wraps up. What's next?
The New York Army National Guard UH-60 medical evacuation helicopter crashed while on a routine training mission around 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 20. Killed were all three soldiers on board, chief warrant officers Steven Skoda and Daniel Prial, both of Rochester, and Christian Koch of Honeoye Falls.
The helicopter, also known as a medical Black Hawk, is based at the Army Aviation Support Facility at the Greater Rochester International Airport.
The unit includes about 80 soldiers and is the air ambulance company that's based out of Rochester. They train to perform medical evacuations and the crew was conducting night vision goggle proficiency training in the local training area.
Similarities
The two fatal crashes occurred roughly 1,900 miles, two time zones and 13 days apart, but share some striking similarities.
Both crashes involved a UH-60 helicopter, also known as a Black Hawk. UH-60's were introduced to the U.S. Military in 1978, and currently make up the Army's largest rotary wing fleet with more than 2,100 in inventory.
More: What we know about UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters
In both crashes, all three pilots aboard — members of the Army National Guard — died while on routine training missions. Both crashes also occurred in the evening, after dusk.
While there may be additional similarities, few details of either crash were released.
Ultimately, the U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center in Fort Rucker, Alabama will investigate both crashes to determine what went wrong.
In late 2019, a similar crash happened in Minnesota, when three National Guard members died during a routine test flight. The military's investigation on the Minnesota crash determined it was a mixture of maintenance failure and human error that caused the Black Hawk to crash into farmland.
Jen Judson, Defense News' land warfare reporter, told the Star Tribune in 2019 that mishap rates are relatively low when compared to total flight time worldwide, and she still stands by those facts.
In 2020, several fatal Black Hawk crashes occurred. Two people were killed and three were injured when a Black Hawk crashed on San Clemente Island in California in August. Seven people died, including five soldiers, when a Black Hawk crashed on a peacekeeping mission in Sinai in November.
Contact Victoria Freile at vfreile@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @vfreile and Instagram @vfreile. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers.
This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: National Guard helicopter crashes in Idaho, Mendon share similarities
