Four Dead in 'Catastrophic Incident' Involving Australian MRH-90 Helicopter

Four crew members onboard the ill-fated Australian Army MRH-90 helicopter that went down during a multinational military exercise have died, the country’s defence ministry confirmed today.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said a significant amount of wreckage was recovered, pointing to a "catastrophic incident.”

Exercise Talisman Sabre, which the helicopter was taking part in, was being conducted off Lindeman Island on Friday night. The crash happened at about 22:30 local time over the Whitsundays, a group of islands off the coast of Queensland.

“… we do know is that Defence exercises are serious. They carry risk and, as such, they are dangerous. But they are so important. These exercises have played a critical part in providing for the collective security and peace of the region in which we live,” Marles said in a statement.

Australia's army chief Lt Gen Simon Stuart grounded the army’s 47-strong MRH-90 Taipan helicopter fleet after the crash.

"We are not flying the MRH-90 today and won't until we think it is safe to do so," Gen Stuart told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.

Australia is in the process of buying U.S.-made Black Hawks to replace European-made Taipan choppers that have been grounded on multiple occasions over maintenance and safety issues. The fleet was pulled from the skies as recently as in March after an engine failure in one of the helicopters forced the crew to ditch into the sea off the coast of New South Wales.

“The MRH-90s were due to come out of service at the end of next year. We will move through the process of putting Black Hawks into service as quickly as we can,” Marles said.