PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Oz Blackhawk Reported Crashed Into Sea Near Fiji
Old 30th Nov 2006, 00:05
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robsrich
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Australia
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Good news from a sad event

Today, as past President of the HAA and an ex-grunt pilot (a long time ago), I have been one of many asked to go on TV and radio to give their point of view.

The sad news is that the ADF has once again lost young people who are out there doing their job in a high risk activity, preparing to save others from the bad guys that are rampaging around the globe.

The good news is that many of those who provided comments have stated that the Blackhawk is widely used, does a good job and in the past decade or so has not had any maintenance problems.

I was able to state (and it was accepted) that on hours flown in many dangerous parts of the world, the safety record is very good in the ADF.

Many people miss this important point, in fact the Australian Army's accident rate per 100,000 hours (and they fly a lot) is probably around just under 2/100,000 hours flown, bettered only by the US Army.

Thankfully all the media frenzy has turned to the escape of the soldiers and the value of HUET. The usual accusations and blame seeking faded away (now subject to investigation) and the media looked at the excellent training the crews had to achieve such a low loss rate.

Hopefully this positive theme will continue, Dave Carlton, 2UE Sydney after being convinced by me that the Blackhawk was OK, turner his attention to the importance of HUET.

A lesson for us all.

Our thoughts are with the families who have lost.

Maybe every dark cloud does have a sliver lining?
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