The crash site of the Australian Sea King in Nias yesterday.
Posted on 04/02/2005 2:50:59 PM PST by naturalman1975
Nine Australian personnel were killed yesterday when a Sea King helicopter crashed on the island of Nias. Two others were seriously injured.
The chopper crashed yesterday afternoon while on approach to Amandraya village on the remote west coast of Nias.
The Sea King helicopter had been ferrying an emergency medical team from the Kanimbla to the village as part of relief efforts to outlying areas of Nias following a devastating earthquake on Monday.
The helicopter crashed on approach to land, Kanimbla captain Commander George McGuire told journalists who had been on board the Kanimbla for a media tour.
He said two on board the helicopter survived and were airlifted to the Kanimbla for emergency surgery by the ship's second helicopter, which landed with a medical team after seeing smoke from the crash site.
"They are in a serious condition with leg fractures and other injuries," he said.
"We believe the rest of the personnel died."
On board the chopper were five naval personnel as well as three from the Air Force and one member of the Army.
The Kanimbla immediately scrambled its second helicopter to inspect the crash zone for a second time after Indonesian military authorities in the area suggested the other nine passengers on board may have survived.
But an hour later the 300 ship's crew members were informed that all nine had been killed, their bodies found in the wreckage by a team of paramedics and rescue personnel.
Commander McGuire immediately dispatched the Kanimbla to the rescue site and last night it was steaming around the southern tip of Nias to take up station near a river leading to the village where the chopper crashed.
"That location is a very remote location," he said, adding that the trip would take about six hours to steam to the site where the chopper, callsign "Shark 02", went down.
Shattered staff on the Kanimbla cried and bowed their heads in shock in the ship's mess room when Commander McGuire broke the news that no other survivors had been found.
In the ship's cavernous hold, which had been converted into an emergency hospital ward, about 20 military doctors were caring for the two wounded crew members, conducting on-the-spot X-rays in preparation for surgery.
Seven of the dead were male and two were female. Both pilots were killed and the two survivors were both male. One had fractures and the other was believed to be in a very critical condition.
The Navy confirmed that those killed were the five naval personnel, three from the Air Force and one Army member.
Journalists on board the Kanimbla were barred from reporting news of the crash until all family members had been informed and the second helicopter on board Kanimbla had confirmed no more survivors.
The Kanimbla had only just reached the area this morning after steaming from Singapore, where crew had been enjoying shore leave after a three-month posting to Aceh.
The rescue mission was the second of the day and both helicopters earlier had returned from Peruk Dalam, on the south of the island, where they had airlifted four Indonesians to the ship for emergency care.
The Kanimbla has a fully equipped operating theatre with two doctors and two anaesthetists who had been operating through the afternoon and last night were fighting to save the life of their critically injured crewmate.
The helicopter, from HMAS Kanimbla, was conducting a sortie in a support of the second phase of Operation Sumatra Assist, the Australian Defence Force's contribution to the earthquake relief effort.
A French camera crew on the chopper travelling behind the crashed Sea King described the site. They say it crashed on a level piece of ground between two mountains beside a river.
The French team saw it at 5.30pm local time (8.30pm Melbourne time) as they flew out of Teluk Dalum in the southern part of Sumatra. The Australian Sea King was also on its way back.
The French helicopter and a Singapore helicopter were on their way back at 5.30pm when they saw some smoke.
Their helicopters made a circle and decided to land. They saw local people putting rope around the site. There were some flames but mostly smoke.
Earlier, while anchored in Guning Sitoli harbour, the ship's presence was the most visible sign in Nias of renewed Australian defence co-operation with the Indonesian military but not the only work the Australians are doing.
The Australians have also provided two C-130 Hercules planes to transport concrete cutting and other search and rescue equipment.
The Kanimbla has been brought in to provide medical backup with a 60-strong medical team and two operating theatres on board.
The Sea King helicopter that crashed was one of two in the air yesterday ferrying a medical team south to the town of Teluk Dalam, on Nias island.
The Sea Kings are stationed on HMAS Kanimbla, which has been charged with providing medical assistance to the people of Nias, following its mission in the tsunami-affected regions of Aceh.
Kanimbla's captain, Commander George McGuire, told The Sunday Age that medical assistance was a top priority.
"There are bound for Teluk Dalam as we speak, which unfortunately had another earthquake last night (early Saturday morning) where there are a large number of casualties," Commander McGuire said.
"Sea Kings are en route to make an initial assessment, and we will be evacuating the injured to our operating team and the Singapore field hospital."
Nias experienced a tremor of less than five on the Richter scale in the early hours of Saturday morning.
It is not clear if the casualties to be evacuated are from this new tremor or from last Monday's one.
The road south to Teluk Dalam is badly damaged, and access is by boat and air.
HMAS Kanimbla had been in Singapore, heading home after three months in Aceh on post-tsunami duty - Operation Sumatra Assist - when it received the message to return to Nias to provide assistance afterMonday's earthquake: "Ship about return to Nias, south-east of Aceh, for Operation Sumatra Assist Phase 2."
Said Commander McGuire: "It was an emotional rollercoaster. When we crash-sailed from Singapore the crew were disappointed but . . . now they are here and they have a job to do they are totally focused."
The Kanimbla, now anchored in Guning Sitoli harbour, is the most visible sign in Nias of renewed Australian defence co-operation with the Indonesian military, but does not represent the only operations being carried out by the Australian defence forces.
They have also provided two C-130 Hercules planes to transport concrete cutters and other search and rescue equipment.
Hydraulic floor lifter kits will be used in the capital, Guning Sitoli, where many downtown buildings up to four storeys high collapsed to rubble in the three-minute quake on Monday because of their poor construction. Six days after the quake, the task is more likely to be body retrieval than search and rescue.
The Kanimbla will provide medical backup. It has a 60-strong medical team and two operating theatres. This week, surgical patients have been evacuated to Medan, a two-hour flight away.
The assistant defence attache at the Australian embassy in Jakarta, Major Fergus McFarlane, said the Kanimbla would complement existing resources. "The Kanimbla has an awesome capacity compared with what is already here," he said.
Not only does the ship have operating theatres, it can also provide purified fresh water.
The Oxfam aid agency said the capital's water supply system had been destroyed in the quake.
Oxfam water sanitation engineer Nigel Smith said most of the island's water pipelines, carrying supplies from springs, had been destroyed, leaving the islanders without fresh water.
Private Jamie Clark, 21, died when he fell down a 15-metre shaft while on patrol in the Solomon Islands on March 10, 2005. Police and military investigations into his death have been announced.
Special Air Service trooper Andrew Russell was killed on February 16, 2002, by a landmine in Afghanistan. He was the first Australian to die in combat since the Vietnam War.
Two soldiers died in East Timor in 2000, but neither was in battle. Lance Corporal Russell Eisenhuth died on January 17, 2000 from malaria. Corporal Stuart Jones died from an accident involving a firearm September 8, 2000.
Private Andrew Watt, 22, of Toowoomba, Queensland, was killed on Friday, June 12, 1998 during hand grenade practice during a tour of duty in Butterworth, Malaysia.
On May 5, 1998, four members of a maintenance crew on HMAS Westralia died in an engine room fire while carrying out trials off Perth.
Eighteen soldiers, including 15 SAS commandos, were killed on June 12, 1996 when two Blackhawk helicopters collided near Townsville. Ten others were injured in the crash.
Army doctor Captain Susan Felsche died in a plane crash in the Western Sahara in June 1993.
Shannon McAliney was accidentally shot dead during peace-keeping operations in Somalia on April 2, 1993.
Captain Peter McCarthy was killed by a landmine in Lebanon in January 1988
On 3 August 1987 Able Seaman Hugh Markrow and Seaman Damien Humphries died when their submarine HMAS Otama submerged beneath them off Sydney.
On October 1, 1985, three sailors on HMAS Stalwart died from inhaling poison gases generated in the ship's sullage tank.
Three Australians, Sergeant Ian Donald Ward, Sergeant Lew Thomas and Inspector Paul Hackett, have died since 1964 whilst on duty with the United Nations Force stationed in Cyprus.
Australia's worst military disaster in peacetime remains the February 1964 Voyager accident when the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne sliced through the destroyer HMAS Voyager, killing 82 men.
I am so sorry.
Nine feared dead in quake crash
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Last Updated: Saturday, 2 April, 2005, 17:03 GMT 18:03 UK 
May God rest their souls, may He heal the wounded , may He comfort those who mourn.
God bless our Aussie allies.
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