A Hawaii Army National Guard helicopter pilot from Kapolei who once dropped 150 pounds to re-enlist at the age of 39 died Tuesday in a helicopter crash in rural northern Indiana while helping to install power lines for a private company.

Chief Warrant Officer 3 Howard Esterbrook, 53, was supposed to return to Oahu on Wednesday after spending weeks flying for a mainland company that was working in Brookston, in Indiana’s White County.

“He was coming home today (Wednesday),” said Esterbrook’s wife, Laura “Ohelo” Esterbrook. “I was going to pick him up at the airport.”

The White County Sheriff’s Department and Indiana State Police received a call of a helicopter crash with injuries at 3:50 p.m. local time Tuesday, according to Sgt. Kim Riley of the Indiana State Police.

Esterbrook’s helicopter was being used to help install power lines on new steel light poles when it crashed for unknown reasons, Riley said.

A ground crew removed Esterbrook from the wreckage and began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. But Esterbrook was pronounced dead at the scene by the White County Coroner’s Office.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration were notified, Riley said.

Esterbrook’s sister-in-law, former Miss Hawaii Luana Alapa, said relatives living in Indiana reported that winds were blowing so hard the day of the crash that cars were getting pushed off of the freeway.

“The winds in Indiana that day were unusually high,” Alapa said. “You would think he would get shot down in Afghanistan. But, no, it was the wind.”

Brad Hayes, executive director of the Naval Air Museum Barbers Point, regularly flew with Esterbrook when they worked around the islands for Maui-based Pacific Helicopters.

Esterbrook had logged more than 20,000 hours flying various helicopters and “had all the flying survival skills, all the tricks up his sleeve and thinking man’s approach to all these jobs,” Hayes said. “Based on this guy’s skill level, it was something that wasn’t controllable or even foreseeable. It snuck up on him and he didn’t even see it. Whatever went wrong, went wrong quick.”

Esterbrook enlisted in the Hawaii Army National Guard in 1985 as a Huey helicopter mechanic, said Guard spokesman Maj. Jeff Hickman.

The following year, Esterbrook became an attack helicopter pilot.

By 1993 he was flying CH-47 Chinooks, then retired with an honorable discharge in 1999, Hickman said.

After he rejoined the Army National Guard in 2003, Esterbrook deployed twice to Afghanistan — in 2010-11 and again in 2013-14.

Before he re-upped for the Guard, Esterbrook lost 150 pounds, his wife said.

“He loved the military,” Laura Esterbrook said. “That is his first love, the military. He said, ‘It is my duty to serve this country.’ That’s what he said and I never, ever questioned him after that.”

To drop all that weight, Laura said her husband ran every day and focused on eating fruits and vegetables with his wife’s encouragement.

“He was doing utility work as a civilian. … but he really wanted to get back into the fight,” Hayes said. “He was completely stoked and looking forward to the next deployment. When the chips are down, this is the guy who would go through that fog to get you.”

Hayes described Esterbrook as “very old school.”

In 2011, while searching on foot for the remains of a downed World War II-era American aviator in the Koolau Range, night and fog began rolling in on Hayes and the rest of the crew.

A less-experienced pilot could have ordered the crew to hike out of danger — or to hunker down overnight until he could return in the morning.

But not Esterbrook, who flew all kinds of helicopters in all kinds of inhospitable terrain, Hayes said.

“The clouds were rolling in thick and you couldn’t even see,” Hayes said. “Howard threaded his way up through the valley and the fog to get to us. When he came out of the mist, he was looking up at us sideways, with his head out the helicopter. I was used to that kind of stuff with him. … But the other guys were blown away, just utterly in shock.”

Hayes called Esterbrook “one of the safest, most experienced helicopter pilots I’ve seen in my life, and I’ve seen a lot. I’ve lost a lot of friends but I never worried about him. He was very cerebral about how things worked.”

Hayes described Esterbrook as “a very warm guy. But he would come across to most people as grumpy and stern.”

His stoicism was belied by a warmth for animals, Hayes said, especially dogs, and especially Esterbrook’s own dogs, Hans and Jack.

“He came off as a macho dude, a construction helmet kind of guy,” Hayes said. “But when it came to his doggies, they were like his kids.”

During a utility job in Halawa Valley a few years ago, Hayes said, three feral puppies kept coming around their landing zone.

“It wasn’t the most safest place to fly into,” Hayes said.

It took three days for the puppies to warm up to the humans, who then put them in a black duffel bag.

Media reports at the time, Hayes said, “described it as ‘An Air Force mission to rescue puppies.’ Really it was Howard and I.”

Alapa, the pilot’s sister-in-law, said the family has been “blown away” by all of the stories they’ve heard since Esterbrook died.

“It’s comforting to know what a special man he was, how much of an influence — a mentor — he was, and how much they looked up on him as a resource, and how he shared his vast knowledge about what he knew about flying,” Alapa said. “Action speaks louder than words and he exemplified that, never brag, never, ever. He was just such a humble guy.”

Esterbrook is survived by his wife, Laura, who runs a company called Ohelo’s Mango Chutneys; daughter Tyler Frederick of Waianae; and a brother, Michael Uchida of Kahala.

Esterbrook had requested that his ashes be scattered in the waters off of Diamond Head, Alapa said.

Services are pending.