The four missing men feared dead in an army helicopter crash have been identified.
Captain Daniel Lyon, Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Warrant Officer Class Two Joseph Laycock, and Corporal Alexander Naggs were on board an MRH-90 Taipan helicopter on Friday evening when it went down into the waters off Queensland’s Hamilton Island. The men were from the Sixth Aviation Regiment based in Holsworthy Barracks in Sydney.
The crew were conducting military training as part of Exercise Talisman Sabre, a biennial joint military exercise that is led either by Australia or the United States.
Australian Army chief Simon Stuart said they are part of a highly professional, skilled, and close-knit unit.
“I couldn’t be more proud of them—as professionals, as soldiers, and as people,” he told reporters from Holsworthy Barracks.
Mr. Stuart said his primary focus was on bringing the four missing men back home to their families, giving support to their families, and finally supporting an investigation team to determine what went wrong.
A search is ongoing after debris from the helicopter was found near the crash site on Saturday evening by the emergency search and rescue team. However, the main body of the helicopter has yet to be found.
Australian Defence Minister Richard Marles said “hundreds” of defence personnel was helping in the major international search and rescue effort.
“Our thoughts are with the aircrew, our thoughts are with their families, and with their teammates who met today and will be experiencing an enormous degree of anxiety at this moment,” he told reporters in Townsville.
Specialist divers from the navy preparing to join the search and rescue efforts on Sunday. Talisman Sabre Exercise Director Brigadier Damian Hill said they would be deployed once ships with sonar equipment arrived.
“HMAS Huon has some of our more experienced divers should we need to look under the water for wreckage as the search and rescue continues.”
History of Issues
Mr. Hill confirmed that the rest of the Taipan helicopter fleet has been grounded until further notice.The European-built Taipans have been known for being problematic, with the federal government announcing in 2021 that it would retire the entire fleet at the end of 2024, 13 years ahead of its planned withdrawal.
Earlier in March, another Taipan was forced to make an emergency landing during a counterterrorism military training exercise into waters off a New South Wales beach in Jervis Bay. Fortunately, the ten personnel onboard walked away with only minor injuries.
When asked why the Taipan helicopters were still in use despite being problematic, Mr. Stuart said the Defence Force always worked to mitigate the risks before they fly.
“We don’t fly if we don’t think it’s safe,” he said.
Mr. Stuart urged against speculating before more information was available.
“Trying to surmise, trying to suggest things at this stage, again, it’s really unhelpful,” he said. “I just ask people to wait until we understand what has happened.”
“Right now, let’s be focused on bringing them home and supporting their families and their friends, and then we’ll get to the underlying causal factors.”
This year’s Exercise Talisman Sabre involves 30,000 military personnel from 13 nations, including New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and South Korea.
It will run from July 22 to Aug. 4 and consists of field training exercises, amphibious landings, ground force manoeuvres, and air combat and maritime operations.
