Howard: Deadly crash of chopper 'heartbreaking'
Howard: Deadly crash of chopper 'heartbreaking'
Agence France-Presse, Sydney, Australia
Australian leaders expressed their heartbreak on Sunday after nine defense personnel were killed when a navy helicopter crashed while on a mercy mission to earthquake stricken areas of Indonesia.
"These young Australians were on a mission of mercy and compassion, they were helping the poor people of the island of Nias in the wake of the latest earthquake there," Prime Minister John Howard said.
"This is really quite heartbreaking," he said on national radio.
The Sea King helicopter from the Australian supply ship Kanimbla was carrying 11 military personnel when it crashed on Saturday evening while on approach to Aman Draya village on the remote west coast of Nias.
Two men survived but nine men and women perished in the burning helicopter, including the two pilots and members of an emergency medical team.
"Every life of an Australian service man or woman is precious to all of us, it's precious to me, and I am really very, very saddened by this," Howard said, adding that the Australian Defense Force would carry out an official investigation into the accident.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the deaths of the Australian soldiers while on a humanitarian mission to help thousands of Indonesians affected by the 8.7-magnitude quake six days earlier was particularly tragic.
"It is a terrible tragedy and here are Australians who are providing humanitarian assistance to people who've been afflicted by death and destruction as a result of the earthquake, and many of them dispossessed," he said.
"For Australians to be killed in providing that assistance is profoundly sad," Downer said.
Kim Beazely, leader of the opposition Labor Party, called the deadly accident a "terrible tragedy made all the more poignant by the humanitarian mission they were conducting when that accident occurred".
The crash was the deadliest incident involving the Australian military since 18 servicemen, including 15 members of the crack Special Air Service regiment, died when two Black Hawk helicopters collided during a training exercise in June 1996.
The captain of the HMAS Kanimbla said the ship and its grief- stricken crew would continue their aid mission to Nias despite the tragedy.
"I think our friends who died ... it would be disrespectful to them if we don't complete our mission," Commander George McGuire told the Kanimbla's 300 crew according to a reporter from the Australian national news agency onboard.
"We owe it to their memory to continue with our job," McGuire said.
The Kanimbla had been returning home after a lengthy mission helping victims of the even more powerful Dec. 26 earthquake in Indonesia when it was ordered back to the zone following last Monday's quake.
It's crew had just been joined by specialist medical evacuation personnel rushed to Indonesia following the latest quake.
The ship spent the night sailing to the southwestern coast of Nias where the helicopter crashed.
Upon reaching the crash site on early Sunday, the Kanimbla will send ashore its two landing craft with personnel on board to help Indonesian authorities secure the crash site, Australian Associated Press reported.
An Indonesian military landing craft will also be at the site to help Kanimbla offload heavy equipment for the reconstruction of Nias, it said.