Another Aussie found safe

By Cynthia Banham Defence Reporter
September 7, 2005

Navy maintenance workers found a problem with the flight controls of a Sea King helicopter two months before it fell from the sky and killed nine military personnel, but they reinstalled a defective part because no spare could be found.

The sailor who found the part was unserviceable made known his displeasure to his superiors after it was decided to reinstall it, the first day of a public hearing into the crash was told yesterday.

The part, known as a bell crank, was refitted anyway and no records were kept of the maintenance work.

The families of the nine killed were appalled yesterday as they listened to evidence about the likely causes of the crash of the Sea King "Shark 02" on the Indonesian island of Nias on April 2, during earthquake relief efforts.

Assembled at the Randwick barracks for the board of inquiry, they were stunned by the evidence, some loved ones holding their heads in their hands throughout the proceedings.

Not only was the helicopter allowed to keep flying after the fault was found in February, they also heard the crash investigators had found there were not enough helmets for the passengers on board the Shark 02 on the day of the crash.

And the navy had discovered, as early as 1995, that the helicopter's crew seats and passenger seats lacked crash resistance, but no decision was made about how to respond until 2003. Then it was decided to "continue operations with the current seating without amendment".

Captain Michael Slattery, counsel assisting the board of inquiry, outlined the findings of the investigation into the crash, which will be the subject of evidence and cross-examination over the next two months.

The hearings will focus on the Sea King's flight control systems.

Captain Slattery said there appeared to be an "uncontrolled movement of a pitching forward" by the helicopter, sending it into a nose dive. There was nothing the pilots could have done "by way of action or counter-action" to avoid the crash.

In the wreckage investigators found a bolt was missing from the bell crank, a part of the flight control system that translates pilot commands into precise mechanical responses. The bolt was found among the debris of the crash.

Captain Slattery told the board of five members that there was a question as to whether a split pin, which was fitted to a nut meant to keep the bolt in place, was "in fact too small and wrong size".

The two survivors of the crash, Leading Seaman Shane Warburton and Corporal Scott

Nichols, sat in the courtroom, held by their partners, as Captain Slattery described in graphic detail how the last hours of the Shark 02 unfolded.

The Sea King was one of two on board the HMAS Kanimbla, which was ordered back to Indonesia after delivering relief for three months following the Boxing Day tsunami when a second earthquake hit Nias. Its last day began with a 7am reconnaissance flight around the island. It spent the next few hours ferrying casualties, before a crew change in the afternoon.

The helicopter refuelled and at 3.26pm took off again.

Everything with the Sea King seemed to be normal "until the last few seconds of flight", Captain Slattery said.

Shortly before 4pm it approached a village.

Villagers who gave evidence to the inquiry - some of whom had never seen a helicopter - told investigators it was about 20 metres above the ground when it hit trouble.

The survivors will give evidence that at this point they felt as if the helicopter's tail "suddenly kicked up" and it nose-dived, Captain Slattery said. Neither survivor could recall fleeing the helicopter. However, villagers said that after a first explosion they saw a person "on his buttocks but propped up on his elbows pulling himself and another away from the helicopter".

Four of the villagers pulled the two men away. Moments later there were two more explosions.

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