Media Room: Media Releases

Black Hawk emergency landing - Yass

An Army Black Hawk helicopter from the 5th Aviation Regiment, based at Townsville, Queensland, conducted an emergency landing near Yass yesterday afternoon (24 November 2010).    

The Black Hawk was conducting a training activity with eight soldiers on board, when an indicator light was activated. The light was activated due to an indicator malfunction.

As a safety precaution, the crew followed standard emergency procedures and landed the aircraft. They were able to rectify the problem and then continue their flight.   

ADF Aviation is very safety conscious and in instances such as this seeks to land as soon as safely possible and deal with any potential issues on the ground.   

The activation of a system fault indication resulted in the crew seeking to confirm the fault through secondary indication such as smoke. Even though none was present, the crew erred on the side of safety and landed the aircraft as soon as it was safe to do so.

This is an isolated incident which has been rectified and does not affect other aircraft.

Media contacts: Defence Media Liaison (02) 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664