Last Update: Sunday, April 3, 2005. 4:44am (AEST)
The Department of Defence has confirmed that nine Australian Defence Force personnel are missing, presumed dead, after a helicopter crash on the Indonesian island of Nias.
An Australian navy Sea King helicopter from HMAS Kanimbla crashed on approach to a village in the south of the earthquake-stricken island yesterday at about 7:30pm (AEST).
"Two Australian Defence Force personnel have been recovered from the crash site of the Navy Sea King, however another nine ADF personnel on board the crashed helicopter are missing presumed dead," a statement said.
The incident was the deadliest involving the Australian military since 18 servicemen died when two Black Hawk helicopters collided during a training exercise in Queensland state in June 1996.
The Australian Associated Press (AAP) earlier quoted Commander George McGuire, the captain of the Kanimbla, saying that nine of the 11 people on board the helicopter died when it crashed on an approach to the island's remote west coast.
Commander McGuire said two on board the helicopter survived and were airlifted back to the Kanimbla for emergency surgery by the ship's second helicopter, which landed with a medical team after seeing smoke from the crash site.
"They are in a serious condition with leg fractures and other injuries," Commander McGuire was quoted as saying by an AAP reporter on board the Kanimbla.
"We believe the rest of the personnel died," he said, adding they included seven men and two women.
The Kanimbla was heading towards the area to try to reach the downed aircraft, the Australian defence spokesman said.
An Indonesian army helicopter was dispatched to the crash site, said Binahati Baeha, the senior government official in the Nias port of Gunung Sitoli.
Indonesian air force spokesman, First Marshal Sagom Tambun, said residents in the Amandraya region in the far south of the island reported seeing the crash.
"The witnesses said that the Sea King helicopter was attempting to conduct an emergency landing in Amandraya subdistrict but it did not go smoothly," he said.
Commander McGuire earlier told reporters that two helicopters had been sent to Teluk Dalam after a powerful aftershock struck the quake-battered region on Saturday.
There "were a large number of casualties" in the town but it was unclear if they were from the aftershock or Monday's larger quake, he said.
The helicopters would "make an initial assessment and subsequent to that we will be evacuating patients to our operating team or onto the Singaporean field hospital at the landing zone," he said.
Indonesian officials said there was no information on injuries or damage in the aftershock, which measured 5.8 on the Richter scale.
The UN estimated Monday's quake killed 1,300 people, most of them on Nias.
From ABC News online