Two Idaho National Guardsmen were killed in a crash after their AH-64 Apache attack helicopter lost power from both engines, an investigation was concluded.
Chief warrant officers Stien Gearhart and Jon Hartway were on a training mission on Nov. 6 when for some unknown reason, the throttles to both engines were placed in the “lock-out” position.
In this mode, the engine is disconnected from the transmission whilst still running at full power. An automatic feature to prevent the engine from burning up kicked in and both engines shut down while the helicopter was just 400 ft above the ground.