As a friend, there’s one thing Brian Tripp will never forget about Joshua Tibbetts: his laugh.

“He had a laugh that I’ll hear every time I think of him, for the rest of my life,” said Tripp, a lifelong friend. “He just made things fun. He was always smiling.”

His good humor carried into his professional life, too.

“Anytime things were messed up or not going well, he would just laugh,” Tripp said. “He had this attitude of, ‘We’re going to figure it out and get out of this some way.’ We just had fun. We laughed our way though a lot of difficult situations.”

Tibbetts, an 18-year veteran of the Maine Warden Service who served the last three years as a pilot, was killed Tuesday in Avon while conducting a fish stocking operation in western Maine.

Tibbetts took off from Crystal Lake Pond in Gray in a Cessna 185 Skywagon. After first flying north to Rangeley Lake, he headed southeast and performed a small loop before crashing, according to ADS-B Exchange, a flight tracking website. He did not appear to send a distress signal, according to Col. Dan Scott of the Maine Warden Service. A witness said there was high wind on Route 4, where she spotted the plane, at the time of the crash.

The Maine Department of Public Safety is handling the investigation into the cause of the crash. The Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board will also investigate, and the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife will assist them in their investigation, Scott said.

Tibbetts was the 16th Maine game warden, and the fourth pilot, to die in the line of duty. His remains were transferred to a Newport funeral home Wednesday.

Tibbetts worked as a deputy for the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department before pivoting to the warden service in 2008. He became a pilot in 2023. His father, Doug Tibbetts, was a longtime game warden in central Maine.

“When he changed over, it just seemed like such a better fit. He was such a great warden,” said Brent Randall, a friend of Tibbetts since their teen years.

Tripp and Tibbetts also met as kids. Their fathers, both game wardens, decided to introduce the boys who were close in age, and it turned into a lifelong friendship.

As they grew older, Tibbetts and Tripp followed in their fathers’ footsteps and joined the Maine Warden Service.

Tripp, a game warden from 1998 to 2014, said he worked closely with Tibbetts for several years on the job. He said Tibbetts became a “mentor in aviation.”

“He would send me videos and tips on technical stuff with airplanes,” said Tripp, currently the executive director of Downeast Lakes Land Trust. “He would be very helpful and frank with the lessons he learned.”

Tibbetts was first and foremost a safe pilot, Tripp stressed.

“Aviation is a risky business, and he measured risk,” Tripp said. “He was a cautious person, but he still lived life. He was very cool-headed and thought his way through things. When I flew with Josh I felt completely comfortable and safe.”

When they were on the job, Tripp said he and Tibbetts often worked the same schedule so they were buddied up a lot.

“Josh is the kind of pilot I want to fly with,” he said. “He was a motorhead and I was, too. We were always tinkering on snowmobiles, motorcycles. Airplanes are just another machine, but it can be unsafe if you didn’t know what you were doing. He was an excellent aviator. He did it gracefully, and made it look easy — though I know it is not easy.”

In his free time, Tibbetts was an avid hunter and snowmobiler, making trips to northern Maine to ride with his friends. Randall recalled one time he and Tibbetts loaded their gear and drove up to Washburn for an outing when his brand-new snowmobile died right in the parking lot.

“He was just kind of like, ‘Whatever. It is what it is,'” Randall said. “He was a very patient, ‘Don’t get too wrapped up around it; that’s the way it goes,’ type-of-guy.”

Randall was a friend of Tibbetts in high school and they reconnected just last summer. Tibbetts took Randall and his two kids for a flight over Millinocket Lake in Piscataquis County. Randall said that although he doesn’t like being up in the air, Tibbetts reassured him and used the flight as an opportunity to teach him and his daughters about his work. He showed how he could track moose from above by tracking swirling algae in remote ponds.

“He had one of the best aircrafts that you could possibly have, and you could tell that he was very prideful of that aircraft and his role,” Randall said. “They broke the mold with someone like him.”

Tibbetts grew up in Corinna, Tripp said, and in recent years worked mostly out of Eagle Lake, a remote Aroostook County town close to Fort Kent. He split his time between northern and southern Maine while his family lived in New Gloucester.

He had the same work ethic and dedication as every Maine warden, Tripp said.

“You really have to want to do best by the state’s natural resources,” Tripp said. “You are working for the people that are out there enjoying the resources and make sure they are playing fair.”

Tripp said Tibbetts had a way of shrugging off the heavy stuff, and making the best of a bad situation.

Mostly, Tripp said Tibbetts “was a great person” and a very proud father. Over the years, the men shared bits of their lives, talked about their families and supported each other, “the way guys sort of do — right there when we really needed each other.”

“He was never one to change for anybody or hide from anything,” Tripp said. “He was just who he was; very genuine. He cared about people, and it showed in his actions and words.”

“He just really embodied that selfless service value,” Randall said, “and I’m gonna miss him.”