The Navy has grounded its Sea King helicopters after nine Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel died when one of the 30-year-old choppers crashed in Indonesia on the weekend.
The Sea King helicopter from HMAS Kanimbla crashed as it was landing near a small village to deliver aid to victims of last week's earthquake.
Soon after the accident, defence analysts raised concerns about the age of the helicopters.
Prime Minister John Howard, Opposition Leader Kim Beazley, ADF chief General Peter Cosgrove and maritime commander, Rear Admiral Rowan Moffit, have all backed the Sea Kings, saying age is not necessarily a factor in the crash.
But Rear Admiral Moffit says he is taking a cautious approach and has grounded Australia's six remaining choppers until an inquiry is carried out.
"Until we find out more detail about exactly what occurred and why, we won't fly," he said.
"There isn't any pressing need for us to fly any of the aircraft at the moment, so we won't. We'll wait and see what the investigators have for us as they get into their inquiries."
Confidence
Ahead of the grounding, Mr Howard said the helicopters' age could not be presumed to be a factor.
"There are a lot of Sea King helicopters around the world of an equivalent age," the Prime Minister said.
"There are a lot of airframes that are in use by a lot of the air forces of many nations, not just Australia, which are 20-30 years [old], perhaps in some cases even more old.
"That has not been the experience of other countries - that that is necessarily the cause of a fatality or of an accident."
Mr Beazley, a former defence minister, agreed that the Sea Kings' age did not mean they were too old to be in service.
Mr Beazley said United States B-52 bombers had been in service for 50 years.
"You cannot automatically say that an aircraft that is 30 years old is by virtue of that fact alone now a problem," Mr Beazley told Channel Seven.
"But at the same time now in the minds of the investigators is the possibility that that would be the case."
General Cosgrove also expressed his confidence in the helicopters.
"Of course I've got confidence in the Sea Kings," he said. "They have performed tremendous work and they are maintained by very professional aviation maintenance staff."
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