The Australian army helicopter that crashed on Friday last week during a multinational exercise hit the water with a “catastrophic impact” and there is no chance its four crew members survived, officials said yesterday.
Australia’s fleet of more than 40 of the MRH-90 Taipan helicopters, made by Airbus, has been grounded since the crash and there are doubts any would fly again.
They are to be grounded until crash investigators determine what caused the tragedy.
Photo: AP
The Australian government in January announced that it plans to replace them with 40 US Black Hawks. The Taipans’ retirement date of December next year would be 13 years earlier than Australia had initially planned.
Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said the search-and-rescue effort changed yesterday to a victim recovery operation with no chance that Captain Danniel Lyon, Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Warrant Officer Joseph Laycock or Corporal Alexander Naggs had survived.
“There was a catastrophic incident and with every passing hour, it is now clear that any hope of finding [the four crew] alive has been lost,” Marles told reporters.
The helicopter crashed during a nighttime exercise with the US and other nations near the Whitsunday Islands on the Great Barrier Reef.
Marles on Saturday had said that the helicopter “ditched,” which refers to an emergency landing, but yesterday he would not rule our pilot error or disorientation in the dark causing the crash into the water. He urged against speculation about potential causes.
“There was a catastrophic impact on the helicopter when it hit the water,” Marles said. “We will move through the process of putting the Black Hawks into service as quickly as we can ... and we will not be flying MRH90s until we understand what has happened.”
The lost Taipan had been taking part in Talisman Sabre, a biennial US-Australian military exercise that is largely based in Queensland state. This year’s exercise involves 13 nations and more than 30,000 military personnel.
The exercise was continuing yesterday with some changes near the recovery operation, Australian Defence Force Chief General Angus Campbell said.
Campbell thanked the US and Canada for their help in the search-and-recovery efforts, which he said was “not an easy operation.”
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