Australia’s military is to ground its fleet of MRH-90 Taipan helicopters after a crash during multinational military exercises that left four crew members missing, the army chief said yesterday.
The helicopter crashed into waters near the Whitsunday Islands off Australia’s subtropical northeast late on Friday, sparking a search by the militaries of three nations, but hopes of finding the missing crew were fading.
Australian Chief of Army Lieutenant General Simon Stuart said that the military would ground its fleet of about 45 Taipan helicopters.
Photo: Bradley Richardson / Australian Defence Force via AP
“We are not flying the MRH-90 today and won’t until we think it is safe to do so,” Stuart told reporters in Sydney.
Even before the incident, Canberra had announced it would replace its aging Taipan helicopters with US-made Black Hawks.
Australian officials have complained about having to repeatedly ground the European-made Taipans, citing difficulties with maintenance and getting spare parts.
Stuart said the current aim was to keep the Taipans in service until next year, but “what happens between now and then, from what we learn from this incident, is yet to be determined.”
Australia’s Taipan fleet was grounded for a month after one of the helicopters suffered engine failure during a nighttime training exercise in March, forcing the crew to ditch into the ocean. No one was seriously hurt.
The aircraft that crashed on Friday night was taking part in the Talisman Sabre exercise, which brings together 30,000 military personnel from Australia, the US and several other nations.
Specialist divers have joined the hundreds-strong search for the missing pilot and three other crew, officials said.
Debris from the crash was recovered on Saturday, with Channel 9 television footage showing a section of the fuselage being lifted from the water.
Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles told reporters in Townsville that a full investigation would take place into the crash.
Stuart identified the four missing crew as Captain Daniel Lyon, Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Warrant Officer Class Two Joseph Laycock and Corporal Alexander Naggs.
They were all from the Sixth Aviation Regiment, based in Sydney.
“You have to feel for their families and their mates,” he said.
“Let’s be focused on bringing them home,” he added.
New South Wales Premier Christopher Minns told Sky News that one of the missing crew was the son of a distinguished senior police officer.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the crash as a stark reminder “that there are no safe or easy days for those who serve in our country’s name.”
He also thanked military personnel from other countries for taking part in the search.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking in Townsville, said that the US would provide any assistance it could.
“Our hearts go out to their loved ones during this terribly difficult time,” Austin said of the missing crew.
The Talisman Sabre exercise was paused briefly on Saturday, but some operations then resumed away from the crash site.
Additional reporting by Reuters
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home