David Naggs has been told it all happened in a shockingly quick time – as few as three to four seconds.
He was told that when Bushman 83 pitched into the sky, it reached an altitude of 356 feet – information he presumes came from the black box which was retrieved 10 days after the crash.
Defence has also revealed something else from the black box.
“It’s a statement of record and fact from the data that was gathered from the voice and flight data recorder that at the point of the accident, the engines were functioning normally – that’s a fact,” Chief of Army Lieutenant-General Simon Stuart told a parliamentary committee in February.
So if the engines were operating normally, what could cause a Taipan to suddenly pitch up and then plummet nose-down in defiance of the mission commander’s demands to correct course?
Suspicion has fallen on a hi-tech helmet that the Taipan pilots were using that night.
The TopOwl has been used by militaries around the world for the best part of two decades. It comprises a helmet-mounted sight display that provides critical information about the aircraft, including altitude, height above ground, pitch and roll (attitude), ground speed, vertical speed and whether the aircraft is climbing or descending.
They suggest the aircraft was OK but the helmet was a problem.
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