The search for an Australian army helicopter that tragically crashed at sea, resulting in the loss of four lives during a joint military exercise with the United States, made a significant discovery on Thursday. Despite finding human remains, the search has yet to recover the crucial black box that holds vital information explaining the incident, according to an officer’s statement.
The primary focus of the operation has been to retrieve the bodies of the four air crew members and locate the black box flight data recorder since the MRH-90 Taipan helicopter crashed on July 28 during a nighttime mission in the Whitsunday Islands off the northeast coast of Australia.
During an underwater drone operation on Wednesday, part of the cockpit and human remains were spotted at a depth of 131 feet. Army Lt.-Gen. Greg Bilton, who is leading the operation, stated that the debris field indicates a catastrophic and high-impact collision with the ocean surface.
The Australian navy plans to deploy specialized equipment to retrieve the wreckage and remains as soon as possible, but the challenging weather conditions and strong currents have hampered the search and recovery efforts. Despite the difficulties, the search teams are determined to locate the black box, which holds crucial flight data and cockpit voice recordings necessary to understand the sequence of events leading to the tragedy.
The MRH-90 Taipan helicopter was participating in Talisman Sabre, a biennial U.S.-Australian military exercise mostly based in Queensland state. This year’s exercise involved 13 nations and over 30,000 military personnel. Prior to the crash, communication with the French Airbus helicopter, which was flying with three other aircraft, was reported to be normal.
Rescue operations began immediately after the crash, but by Monday, officials declared that there was no hope of finding any survivors. Consequently, Australia’s fleet of more than 40 Taipans has been grounded since the incident, and there are doubts about the possibility of any of them flying again.
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In January, the government had announced plans to replace the Taipans with 40 U.S. Black Hawk helicopters, leading to their retirement in December 2024, thirteen years earlier than initially planned. The fleet was previously grounded in March after a Taipan was forced to ditch off the coast of New South Wales during a nighttime counterterrorism training exercise. Fortunately, all ten passengers and crew members were rescued on that occasion.
