07-05-2025
Taipan helicopters were 'immature and underperforming', inquiry into fatal crash hears
A former army aviation commander has told an inquiry into a fatal Taipan helicopter crash off Queensland's coast that the aircraft was "immature and underperforming".
Four airmen — Captain Danniel Lyon, Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Warrant Officer Class 2 Joseph Laycock and Corporal Alexander Naggs — died when the MRH-90 Taipan they were in ditched and crashed into the ocean near the Whitsundays during a night-time training exercise in July 2023.
On Wednesday, in the final week of the independent inquiry, Major General Stephen Jobson gave evidence about the fleet.
"The MRH-90 system was subject to constant reviews, groundings, air-worthiness artefacts, project slippages, loss flying hours, disruption and remediation," he said in a statement.
The Taipan wreckage is pulled from water off Queensland's coast.
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ABC News
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He said it was well-known among defence higher-ups that the aircraft was problematic.
A 2016 report by former Australian Defence Force chief Sir Angus Houston found the aircraft was causing capability issues and recommended the Taipan not be introduced into 6th aviation regiment — the regiment the four dead men belonged to — for special operations services.
This recommendation was not accepted, and the helicopter was introduced.
'Why was the system limping on?'
The helicopters were retired 15 months before their planned withdrawal date after the fatal crash in July 2023.
Counsel assisting, Colonel Jens Streit, asked Major General Jobson why the system wasn't retired sooner.
"Why was the system effectively limping on in a sub-optimal way, draining the resources of the command and its people?" he asked.
Major General Jobson said as the commanding officer of the 16th aviation brigade between 2016 and 2019 the brigade did everything it could to bring the helicopter into service in line with directions from defence higher-ups.
Divers during the search and rescue operation near Lindeman Island in the Whitsundays.
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Supplied: ADF
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The inquiry has previously heard the MRH-90 had a medium risk to defence members.
Major General Jobson described this as "an elevated risk of a catastrophic event occurring".
He said he couldn't be sure all aviators knew of this before the 2023 crash but would have expected them to be told.
He said he was uncomfortable with that level of risk.
"To be true, I was never comfortable. This is safety risk, and this is the safety and wellbeing of our personnel. I think if I was to become comfortable, I would become complacent," he said.
"Comfort was certainly not something present through really any of my commands there."
Acquisition should have been scrapped, inquiry told
Throughout the inquiry witnesses have given evidence about problems with the Taipan.
Last year, a member who oversaw the helicopters' acquisition told the inquiry the aircraft should have been retired about a decade before the fatal crash.
Lieutenant Colonel Gary Lamont said they should have been scrapped halfway through the acquisition process, and he felt the program needed to repeatedly fail "before there was the political will to retire" them.
Photo shows
A composite image of four fair-skinned men, three of whom are in military uniform.
Damning evidence, a radio shock jock, and accusations of witness intimidation have dominated hearings into a defence helicopter crash off the Queensland coast that killed four aviators.
Major General Jobson on Wednesday told the inquiry lessons had been learned from the Taipans acquisition process, and those mistakes had not been repeated for the rollout of the Blackhawk helicopter.
He said the Blackhawk helicopter was a stable and mature system, requiring much less maintenance hours, which was having a "real time" impact for maintainers on the ground.
"That difference … in workload, is what is borne out in our maintenance workforce," he said.
"And it's borne out in their families. When their soldier goes to work in an extremely demanding environment, working with a demanding, underperforming system, it's very difficult."
Major General Jobson also delivered an emotional address to the friends and families of the airmen who died, saying they had "suffered the saddest and the greatest of loss".
"We'll remember them with great honour and dignity and respect, always.
"This accident was a great tragedy. That night, we lost four good men.
"I was in command of the army aviation command. I had responsibility and accountability. I'll endeavour to do my very best today to deliver that accountability."
Hearings are expected to finish on Friday.
