3 NY Guardsmen killed in helicopter crash were experienced pilots

article

Chief Warrant Officer 5 Steven Skoda, 54, of Rochester, Chief Warrant Officer 2 Daniel Prial, 30 of Rochester, and Chief Warrant Officer 4 Christian Koch, 39, of Honeoye Falls. (NY National Guard) ​

NEW YORK - The three National Guard members killed when a helicopter crashed in an upstate New York field this week were experienced pilots with past deployments to Afghanistan, officials said Friday.

Killed in the crash were Chief Warrant Officer 5 Steven Skoda, 54, of Rochester, Chief Warrant Officer 4 Christian Koch, 39, of Honeoye Falls, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Daniel Prial, 30 of Rochester, according to the National Guard.

The UH-60 Black Hawk medical evacuation helicopter crashed in a farmer’s field near Mendon, south of Rochester, around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. There were no survivors.

The crew had been conducting night vision goggle proficiency training in the local training area, the National Guard said. The helicopter was based at the Army Aviation Support Facility at Rochester International Airport.

Witnesses who called 911 reported hearing an engine sputtering and said the helicopter was flying very low.

An Army Safety Investigation team arrived at the site Thursday from Fort Rucker in Alabama.

Skoda served in the Army from 1985 to 1987 and joined the National Guard 1987. He was a veteran of the Afghanistan War and was deployed there in 2013 and 2019.  He was rated to fly the UH-60 Black Hawk A and L models, the UH-1 "Huey", the OH-58 Kiowa, the AH-1 Cobra, and the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.

He worked as a full-time National Guard technician at the Army Aviation Support Facility at the Rochester International Airport, as well as serving as a member of C Company of the 171st General Support Aviation Battalion.

RELATED: 3 dead in helicopter crash in western New York, National Guard says

He was a UH-60 senior instructor pilot and maintenance test pilot with nearly 5,000 flying hours and worked full time as a National Guard technician.

Koch, a 20-year member of the Guard, served in the war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq. He also was a civilian pilot for the New York State Police, which said he was recently honored by the Red Cross for his role in the rescue of an 11-year-old boy who fell 100 feet down a ravine in June. He served as part of Operation Noble Eagle, the National Guard security mission in the United States after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in 2004.

Koch is survived by his wife and four children, state police said.

Prial served in the Army after earning a commission at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2012.

He served as a medical evacuation platoon leader with the 82nd Airborne Division’s 82nd Combat Aviation Brigade and deployed to Afghanistan in 2014 and 2015. He became a captain before accepting an appointment as a warrant officer in the Guard so he could continue to fly, officials said.

Prial worked at the Aviation Support Facility as a federal technician.

He was rated to fly the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter and had 670 flying hours.

The remains of the three were recovered from the crash site Thursday and escorted by processions of first responders to the county medical examiner’s office. Residents, some holding flags, came out of their homes and saluted as the vehicles passed.

With the Associated Press