It was, and probably still is a common occurance for undeclared DG to find its way onto Mil aircraft. Particularly in an operational environment and particularly with Army personnel.
Heximine and Zippo lighters are the usual items, sometimes small gas bottles. The 10% checks done by the RAAF air load teams usually turned up something but charges rarely resulted. Early on in East Timor pax and cargo were boarding helos without any checks at all and this may have been the case on Nias. Who then would the responsibility lie with?
Regardless, the RAN is wholey responsible for this accident occuring in the first place. The jet fuel on board at the time presented a far greater fire hazard than the gas cannisters. If they were not on board would the outcome have been any different?
Last edited by Trojan1981; 17th Dec 2008 at 22:46.