Top Stories
Helo survey efforts
By Michael Brooke

Volume 50, No.2, February 22, 2007
 
FULLY LOADED: MV Seahorse Standard is readied to help search for the Army Black Hawk lost last year.
 
United States Navy equipment flown to Sydney by two giant Antonov AN124 cargo aircraft is being fitted to a Defence Maritime Services vessel.

The equipment will be used to survey the site of the located flight data recorder of the Army Black Hawk helicopter lost off Fiji during an operation late last year.

The survey will determine if the Black Hawk can be recovered from a depth of almost 3,000 metres.

CAPT Gregory Sammut, CSO (OPS) Fleet Command, told Navy News that the equipment provided by the United States Navy Supervisor of Salvage (SUPSALV) is being fitted to MV Seahorse Standard.

CAPT Sammut said the survey using the SUPSALV equipment would be conducted in March and would determine the feasibility of recovering the Black Hawk.

“This will be a really complex and challenging task and any recovery action will depend on what we find,” he said.

CAPT Sammut said the SUPSALV equipment includes a Remote Operated Vehicle that will be used to determine the condition of any aircraft wreckage that might lie in the vicinity of the flight data recorder.

“It will take the MV Seahorse Standard about 10 days to get to the site, and, weather permitting, we should be in a position by early March to know if we will attempt any recovery operation,” he said.

CAPT Sammut said a decision to recover the aircraft would only be made after the survey was completed, but personnel and equipment would be in place to execute this immediately if required.

He said the SUPSALV equipment will be fitted to MV Seahorse Standard at Fleet Base East over a 10-day period.

The RAN helped locate the flight data recorder of the Black Hawk that sank off Fiji in 2006 with the loss of two lives.

The Black Hawk was operating from HMAS Kanimbla on November 29 when it was lost and sank in the ocean.

Chief of Army, LTGEN Peter Leahy, said the investigation into the accident was being conducted in two phases, with the aviation report expected shortly.