KIVI Staff
Originally Published: 13 MAY 26 12:24 ET
By Sahana Patel
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MOUNTAIN HOME, Idaho (KIVI) — The Gunfighter Skies Air Show returns to Mountain Home Air Force Base this weekend after eight years. Crews have been planning for nearly two years and taking from lessons learned from past tragedies.
Air Show Director Anthony Mountain said the road to this weekend was not without obstacles.
“We’ve worked through a fair amount of challenges, including a no-notice deployment that happened recently, and just to see how the team and the base has come together to put on a great show has been the best part,” Mountain said.
Maintenance crews have been working around the clock to ensure every aircraft is ready for takeoff, with teams prepared to make repairs at a moment’s notice if something goes wrong during the show.
Hannah Brian, director of operations for the Fighter Generation Squadron, said her team will be visible throughout the event.
“You’ll see us out there fixing [aircraft] and launching them, but they’re there sitting ready to go and doing all the preparation to make sure that everything goes smoothly,” Brian said.
Safety for spectators is also a top priority. Senior Master Sergeant Jesse Mitchell, the air show maintenance deputy, said aircraft positioning is carefully managed to protect the crowd.
“We keep all of our aircraft at a perfectly safe distance so even if something does happen, the crowd will never be involved in any of those incidents,” Mitchell said.
First responders and emergency teams will be stationed across the base throughout the weekend. Officials say past incidents continue to shape how they prepare for large-scale events.
During the base’s last air show in 2018, a hang glider died after crashing onto the runway. In 2003, a Thunderbirds jet crashed during the show, though the pilot ejected safely just one second before impact.
Mitchell said those events directly inform current planning.
“We can go through and learn everything that we can from those incidents. In one of our plans that we have right now is we’re going to have a helicopter on static; that’s a Life Flight helicopter,” Mitchell said.
Deputy Fire Chief Justin Hatch said new requirements are now in place as a result of past incidents.
“Now, for air shows, we’re required to have trucks stationed on the flight line on the ramp so we can reach anywhere on the airfield within 60 seconds,” Hatch said.
Even as the air show takes center stage, the base’s operational mission continues. Brian said her team is balancing the event with ongoing military responsibilities.
“We still have a mission to do, and we’re recovering from a deployment. We’re working through reconstituting our fleet, so my focus has really been just to make sure that that is still ongoing throughout the duration of the air show,” Brian said.
The Gunfighter Skies Air Show takes place Saturday and Sunday at Mountain Home Air Force Base. You can find details on the event here.
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