Families of MRH-90 Taipan helicopter victims tell inquiry they were disappointed with ADF handling of the crash
The families of four air crewmen on-board a helicopter that crashed off the North Queensland coast were given false hope that they were alive for three days.
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For nearly three days the families of four army airmen whose aircraft plunged into the sea were given hope their loved ones would return after they were told a rescue mission was under way to find the missing MRH-90 Taipan off the North Queensland coast.
What they didn’t know was that authorities knew from the minute the helicopter crashed into the water that there were no survivors.
Now those family members, who continue to grapple with their grief, have told an inquiry into the failed mission how the Australian Defence Force got it so wrong in delivering the heartbreaking news.
Captain Danniel Lyon, Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Warrant Officer Class 2 Joseph Laycock and Corporal Alexander Naggs were on-board their MRH-90 Taipan helicopter during Exercise Talisman Sabre when the aircraft suddenly ditched into the ocean south of Hamilton Island on July 28 last year.
All four men were killed in the horrific crash.
An independent inquiry into the fatal incident, headed up by former judge Margaret McMurdo, is hearing evidence about the crash and possible contributing factors.
The aircraft, with the call sign Bushman 83, was set to fly in formation with three other helicopters in a nocturnal training mission while they waited for the call to collect other officers from Lindeman Island in Queensland.
However, the training mission went tragically wrong when the aircraft climbed suddenly before pitching nose down towards the water where it crashed and splintered on impact.
Nearly 2000km south, ADF welfare teams were preparing to inform the four airmen’s next of kin there had been a serious crash involving their loved ones.
Captain Lyon’s wife, Caitland Lyon, was getting ready for what should have been a normal Saturday with her two young children when she received a knock at the door.
Mrs Lyon said she saw two people standing in uniform at her doorstep there to tell her about the crash.
“In my mind it had to be a prank that we were being broken into, in my mind it wasn’t happening,” Mrs Lyon told the inquiry in Brisbane this month.
“I was screaming ‘my husband’ and I refused for quite a while before I let them in.”
Once inside, the army officers informed her a search and rescue was under way to try to find her husband and his colleagues.
But that wasn’t exactly true.
The inquiry was told the Queensland Police Service had been tasked to investigate the crash to assist the Queensland Coroner’s Office.
During the investigation, forensic crash investigator Senior Constable Joseph Cook said he’d initially received written confirmation from the ADF that it was understood the “crushing of the rear cabin” would have “killed the occupants instantaneously”.
The correspondence concluded that “impact forces on the night of the accident were very substantial … beyond human tolerance at any magnitude”.
The inquiry was also told by army officers on-board the other aircraft involved in the exercise that the Taipan helicopter tail had broken off and was floating in the water, and debris from the crash was “bigger than the size of a basketball court”.
Mrs Lyon said initially she wasn’t told the extent of the crash.
“It was very, very cruel to let me and (our son) Noah and our family believe they would find him and they were going to bring him home,” she said.
“I think it just would have been easier in the long run (to know) that he was dead … to when I was hoping and praying for a miracle that was actually impossible.
“They made out to me that it was a search and rescue. They knew where it was from the moment it crashed.
“They led people to believe for three days they were searching for an aircraft and crew.”
Mrs Lyon said there should have been more communication with the families about the reality of the search efforts in those following days.
“I felt like I was drip-fed information from that very point when they did know (he was dead),” she said.
“I don’t know what they were going to achieve by telling me that because they knew of the impact.
“It was cruel to me and to Noah to let us believe he was OKs or he was at least alive.
“There probably needs to be some training going forward where notifications teams are able to share that truth because holding it back is incredibly cruel.”
While the Lyon family were coming to terms with the heartbreaking news, Corporal Alexander Naggs’s partner, Sarah Loft, was also hearing the words no defence family ever wants to hear.
Due to a clerical error, the ADF was forced to deliver the news over the phone to Ms Loft after Corporal Naggs hadn’t updated his new home address.
“I thought it was a prank until he kept talking and then I realised it was real,” Ms Loft told the inquiry.
“For some reason that day, I always start to flick over the news, but for some reason I hadn’t.
“I thought it was really strange he hadn’t sent me a good night text.”
But while the words were slowly sinking in, Ms Loft said she somehow knew her partner wasn’t returning home.
“I knew they weren’t coming home. If the search and rescue had started straight away, they would have found them,” she said.
“They were unaccounted for.
“I knew they weren’t coming home but because I know those people that were with them wouldn’t have stopped until they found them.”
However, Ms Loft said the ADF had left her with some hope that she was wrong, as she continued to be told that it was a search and rescue mission, not a recovery effort.
“It was cruel, they knew that it was a violent crash and they were gone and we were told for three days that they were missing,” she said.
“You knew they weren’t coming home, but you had to have hope.”
Mrs Lyon said the entire incident was “very confusing” as her family tried to process what was happening up north, especially as more information was being confirmed on news reports than on what she was being directly told by the ADF.
“This constant stonewalling, it’s hard to determine what is correct and what is rumour,” she said.
“It’s been hard to have patience in this process, but I understand it’s a process we must go through.
“There’s been no suggestion about what could have gone wrong.
“We have no idea but I understand there is a process we must undertake and I’m grateful to be a part of that process.”
The inquiry is expected to hold its next public hearing in June.
The entire Taipan fleet has since been retired 18 months early in the aftermath of the crash.
Originally published as Families of MRH-90 Taipan helicopter victims tell inquiry they were disappointed with ADF handling of the crash
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