President James Hansen Jr., who served as first counselor in the Ammon Idaho Foothills Stake, and members of his extended family were traveling home from their annual pheasant hunt in South Dakota when their Pilatus PC-12 crashed within a mile of takeoff. President Hansen and eight of the relatives aboard the plane were killed in the crash. Three members of the family survived and are being treated in a South Dakota hospital.
A well-known family in Idaho due to entrepreneurial success, the tragedy has received national attention. A friend of the family, Gavon Barkdull remembers James and his brother, Kirk, who also passed away in the crash, always beginning their business trips with a prayer.
“It was their sincere desire to be instruments in the hands of the Lord, to do good in the world with the blessings they had been given,” he told Church News.
Their stake president, Von Crofts, said of the extended Hansen family, “Our understanding of the plan of salvation and the Savior is what brings us peace and comfort. The example [of this family] is what will help us get through this. We will want to be like them.”
Read more on thechurchnews.com.