I’ve just read the online Letters to the Editor in ‘The Australian’ discussing the Blackhawk crash. From some (most!) of the comments, you’d think the writers were Germans in the late 1960’s discussing the Luftwaffe’s F104’s ‘widow makers’. (For those too young to remember, the Germans were seemingly losing one F104 a week for a while there.)
To my knowledge, the Australian Blackhawk fleet has suffered three Cat 5 losses in almost ten years, (and two of those aircraft were lost in a midair, so it could be said there have been only TWO major accidents in that period), and the Australian public are wailing and gnashing their teeth and bemoaning the ADF’s and the Blackhawk's “gross shortcomings” as if it’s the morning after the first day of the **** Somme! I was listening to Sydney talkback radio a day or two ago and heard much the same sentiments from many who called in, with few if any ‘in the know’ bothering to call in to refute the mostly nonsense being spoken by the many.
It’s quite obvious that few of the chattering class have any idea of what’s involved on a day to day basis in military rotary wing flying. Maybe it’s about time someone made them aware of it.