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.