Australian Sea King Board of Inquiry
Suspect part blamed for Sea King tragedy
Simon Kearney and Annabelle McDonald
September 07, 2005
A SUSPECT piece of machinery that had been examined just two months before an Australian Sea King helicopter crashed in Indonesia in April has been blamed for the deaths of the nine crewmembers on board the aircraft.
A navy board of inquiry heard yesterday that the "bell crank" in the helicopter's flight control system had been reinstalled, not replaced, despite the objections of a technician.
Documents detailing the maintenance work on the part were now missing, said counsel assisting the inquiry, Captain Michael Slattery QC. "A bolt appears to have come out of that bell crank ... it was found some distance from the bell crank and buried in debris in a way inconsistent with the fire," he said.
Senior defence sources told The Australian last night they believed the bolt was not properly fitted nor checked before the aircraft was cleared to resume flying.
Captain Slattery also told the board the helicopter did not have enough helmets for its 11 passengers and crew and that the navy had refused to install new seating to improve its safety, after eight years considering the problem.
In his opening statement, Captain Slattery said a maintenance procedure on the part had been performed on February 3 after a junior seaman noticed that the bell crank had "lateral play" and reported it to his superiors.
The crank was removed while HMAS Kanimbla was at sea and Captain Slattery said it was later reinstalled, over the objections of the maintainer who had found the problem. Captain Slattery said the testimony of the maintenance supervisor was that the bell crank was "in the limits as specified by the documents".
However, the captain said documents - which should have been kept for the procedure - could not be found.
"There's no proper record of the removal of the bell crank and its reinstallation," he said.
Opposition defence spokesman Robert McClelland said the Defence Department should explain what went wrong.
Two reports by Defence Department investigators have now all but ruled out pilot error for the crash. "There is nothing that the pilots could have done by way of action or inaction to avoid the collision with the ground," Captain Slattery said.
The inquiry heard that on April 2, as Sea King Shark02 was coming in to land on earthquake-ravaged Nias, it suddenly nosedived into the ground from a height of 20m, sparking a large fire. Survivors Leading Seaman Shane Warburton and Corporal Scott Nichols had noticed nothing out of the ordinary until they both felt the tail of the helicopter kick upwards.
"The nose hit the ground somewhere near vertical," Captain Slattery said. "It hit first on the roof and then on the port side. Neither (survivor) can recall how they left the helicopter."
Indonesian witnesses saw one of the pair drag the other from the burning wreckage.
The two-month inquiry will focus on the missing bolt and the crashworthiness of the aircraft - which was put into service in the Royal Australian Navy in 1975 - in particular, the seating and the shortage of helmets.