Three Idaho Army National Guard pilots were killed after their helicopter crashed Tuesday night during a routine training mission, the Guard said Wednesday.
The pilots were in a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter when it went down south of Lucky Peak, a park area about 10 miles from Boise, around 8 p.m. local time on Tuesday, the National Guard said in a statement. The bodies were found on Wednesday, it said.
It was the second crash in two weeks in which a National Guard team in a Black Hawk helicopter was killed in the United States. On Jan. 20, a New York Army National Guard helicopter on a training mission crashed near Rochester, killing three Guard members.
And in 2019, a Black Hawk helicopter carrying three Army National Guard members crashed in Minnesota during a maintenance test flight, killing the three crew members on board.
The aircraft in Idaho was last in contact at about 7:45 p.m. on Tuesday, Col. Christopher Burt, the Idaho Army National Guard’s state aviation officer, said. Once an emergency device aboard the aircraft was activated, a team started emergency recovery work that included air and ground search-and-rescue crews, the Guard statement said.
The crews found the aircraft and pilots at about 12:15 a.m. local time on Wednesday, it said. The cause of the accident was not known and would be investigated, it said.
The names of those who died were not immediately released.
“This is a tremendous loss to the Idaho National Guard and our community,” said Maj. Gen. Michael J. 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.”
