Australian Army Grounds NH90 helicopter Following Crash

After a crash on the evening of July 28, the Australian Army grounded its entire fleet of NH90 helicopters, also known as the MRH-90 Taipan locally. Following the finding of a significant fuselage component on July 31, four crew members have been reported to be dead.

The search by the militaries of three countries was launched when the helicopter crashed into waters close to the Whitsunday Islands off Australia’s subtropical northeast late on Friday, but chances of finding the missing crew were dwindling.

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Australia will ground its fleet of roughly 45 Taipan helicopters, according to Lieutenant General Simon Stuart, the head of the Australian Army, who made the announcement on Sunday. Stuart told reporters that, “We are not flying the MRH-90 today and we won’t until we think it is safe to do so.”

Canberra had already declared it would swap out its outdated Taipan helicopters with American-made Black Hawks before the event.

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Australian officials have expressed dissatisfaction over having to frequently ground the Taipans produced in Europe, citing challenges with maintenance and obtaining replacement parts. Keeping the Taipans in service until 2024 is the current goal, according to Stuart, but “what happens between now and then, from what we learn from this incident, is yet to be determined.”

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