Inquiry into fatal Taipan army helicopter crash begins

An independent inquiry into the Taipan helicopter crash that killed four ADF personnel last year will begin in Brisbane today.

Transcript

00:00 Gemma, this will be an independent inquiry and an examination of just what happened to

00:07 the MRH90 Taipan helicopter when it crashed off the Queensland coast last year.

00:13 It happened in July of last year during the ADF exercise Talisman Sabre.

00:19 It's a training exercise and it was a night time exercise they were running at the time

00:24 and sadly the helicopter crashed into the ocean just off Lindeman Island which is on

00:30 the Whitsundays coast and tragically four ADF personnel died in that crash.

00:36 They were Daniel Lyon, Maxwell Nugent, Joseph Laycock and Alexander Nags.

00:43 Hundreds of ADF and emergency services personnel scoured the Whitsundays coast for three months

00:50 looking for debris and recovering the bodies of those men involved in the crash.

00:55 The Albanese government grounded this particular helicopter shortly after this crash and there's

01:01 been several investigations from the Australian Defence Force already on this.

01:06 But what this inquiry today and going forward is all about Gemma is finding out exactly

01:12 what happened during this crash and putting things in place so it does not happen again.

01:19 So family members who, those loved ones died in this crash, they've also been invited to

01:25 come along and be a part of this inquiry.

01:28 [BLANK_AUDIO]