BOISE, Idaho — It's been one year since the helicopter crash that took the lives of three Idaho Army National Guard pilots during a training flight in the mountains east of Boise.
Today the Guard remembered Chief Warrant Officer 4 Jesse Anderson, Chief Warrant Officer 3 George "Geoff" Laubhan, and Chief Warrant Officer 3 Matthew Peltzer as citizen-soldiers who were "also fathers, husbands, brothers, sons and friends."
"Their loss will forever impact our organization," the Idaho National Guard said Wednesday in a Facebook post.
The three men, all described as experienced pilots with thousands of hours of flight time and 30 years of experience between them, were participating in a routine training flight when they crashed near Three Point Mountain just after 8 p.m. on Feb. 2, 2021, in weather conditions that had quickly deteriorated, with snow and fog limiting the crew's visibility.
Anderson was a senior instructor pilot who had served in the Idaho Army National Guard since 2008, and in the U.S. Army for eight years before that. He is survived by his wife and four children.
Laubhan, an instructor pilot, had been in the Idaho Army National Guard since 2010. He leaves behind his wife and two children.
Peltzer was a pilot who had served in the Idaho Army National Guard since 2005. He is also survived by a wife and two children.
The intention of the training exercise was to get more experience flying in mountainous conditions, similar to what Idaho National Guard pilots might be dealing with in a search-and-rescue situation.
Anderson, Laubhan, and Peltzer took off from Gowen Field at 6:50 p.m. Feb. 2 after hours of checks, route planning, crew briefings, weather assessments, and other preparations.
"During the flight, the crew reported no anomalies with the flight or with the aircraft," Col. Christopher Burt, State aviation officer, stated initially after the incident. "After all evaluation tasks were complete, the crew reported at 7:45 p.m. that operations were normal and they were returning to Boise. This call would be the last communication we had with the crew."
Just after 8 p.m., the Black Hawk hit the side of a mountain in a remote area near Three Point Mountain, destroying the helicopter and killing everyone on board.
The Idaho National Guard was notified that an emergency beacon had been activated on the helicopter, and immediately launched a search and rescue effort. The ground team reached the site at 12:13 a.m., confirming that no one had survived the crash.
An investigation following the accident found no evidence of mechanical factors in the crash. Everything on the helicopter was functioning properly, and all inspections and required maintenance were current.
Poor weather conditions likely contributed to the cause of the accident, as a dense fog had rolled in just before the plane went down.
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