Safety test found upgrade used in army helicopter crash ‘unacceptable’

2 weeks ago 7

By Tess Ikonomou

April 29, 2024 — 6.52pm

Concerns were flagged astir a helmet utilized by MRH-90 Taipan pilots the nighttime of a fatal clang aft a trial recovered a bundle upgrade posed an “unacceptable” risk, an enquiry has been told.

Captain Danniel Lyon, Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Warrant Officer Class Two Joseph Laycock and Corporal Alexander Naggs were killed erstwhile their chopper crashed disconnected the northbound Queensland seashore successful July 2023 during Exercise Talisman Sabre.

The chopper unit who perished successful the crash.

The catastrophe led to the aboriginal status of the Taipans past year, their work already tarnished with fleet-wide groundings and superior incidents.

Hearings for the enquiry into the clang resumed connected Monday.

Captain Andrew Balaam, a MRH-90 aviator posted to the School of Army Aviation, said a trial of the latest bundle upgrade V5.10 for the TopOwl helmet worn by the pilots recovered an “unacceptable” risk.

He said the study deeming the upgrade “unacceptable” appeared to beryllium “a spot of an outlier” arsenic it had passed tests with the archetypal instrumentality shaper and had been utilized by European militaries.

“I was gonna person to alert that happening for existent astatine nighttime implicit h2o successful a degraded ocular environment, I was blessed to bash that,” helium said.

“As so were the different 11 pilots ... we were not turkeys voting for Christmas, we were going to person to usage it.

“So I was blessed to usage it.”

He was responding to a question astir allegations aired during a 60 Minutes probe the Australian Defence Force ignored warnings successful 2020 astir the information of the upgrade, which could pb to deaths.

“I was alert that a erstwhile trial ... had been conducted wherever they had stated that mentation 5.10 was unacceptable,” Captain Balaam told the inquiry.

“That was their conclusion.”

He said helium understood however the valuation would person reached that presumption looking astatine it successful isolation.

“If you took a somewhat broader presumption and looked astatine what 5.10 was replacing and the advantages that it brought, connected a equilibrium of risk, it was astir apt omniscient to proceed, due to the fact that the issues that it was resolving were arsenic arsenic challenging,” Captain Balaam said.

Asked if the pros outweighed the cons, helium replied “absolutely”.

MRH-90 Taipans are acceptable to beryllium replaced.

Major Michael Perkins, who was posted arsenic a elder flying teacher to the army’s 5th Aviation Regiment, disputed the allegations raised successful the 60 Minutes study arsenic “factually incorrect”.

“I disagreed with the sentiment,” helium said.

Major Perkins added Defence should look astatine the load of the airworthiness delegations held by 1 idiosyncratic successful the army, which was considerably greater than those successful the navy and aerial unit due to the fact that of size.

The Taipans are acceptable to beryllium replaced with Black Hawks imported from the United States.

The enquiry continues.

-AAP