Decorated Army pilot Captain Daniel Lyon warned his colleagues that someone would one day die in a helicopter incident.
Months later he was killed in a crash alongside Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Petty Officer Class Two Joseph Laycock and Corporal Alexander Naggs when their MRH-90 Taipan crashed into the sea off the coast of Queensland.
The helicopter, which was given the call sign Bushman 83, flew in formation with three others to Lindeman Island in July 2023 as part of Exercise Talisman Saber.
His wife Caitland Lyon remembers the terrible moment when Defense representatives showed up at her door.
“In my mind it had to be a joke… there was no way I could imagine that this could actually happen,” she told an inquest into the crash on Wednesday.
When she finally let them in, they told her that the father of their two children was missing, even though they knew there had been a catastrophic impact.
“It would have been easier to hear that the crew was dead … much less cruel than to have us hope and pray for a miracle that wouldn’t happen,” she said.
Troop Commander Captain Dan Lyon (pictured) was one of four men killed in the tragic helicopter crash during Exercise Talisman Saber
Corporal Alex Naggs, Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent and Warrant Officer Class 2 Joseph Laycock (pictured from left to right) were the three others who died in the tragedy
A few months earlier, Captain Lyon had attended a meeting with Defense to discuss an incident at Jervis Bay on the NSW south coast where an MRH-90 crashed into the sea after an engine failed in March 2023.
The crew was praised for their handling of the emergency, but did not feel that the problem had been resolved and that adequate measures had been taken to prevent a similar incident.
“Someone is going to die one day,” he told the gathering.
Ms Lyon recalled that he “absolutely did not feel like he was being heard or that the safety of his crew was being prioritized.”
The Taipans retired two months after the fatal disaster in July, with their service already affected by fleet-wide groundings.
Ms Lyon questioned the decision to dissemble and bury the Taipans, saying she could not understand why they were destroyed when they could be “key pieces of evidence” for the investigation into the crash.
“I don’t know what possible reason there could be for such drastic and urgent action by Defense,” she said.
She echoed other family members about the Defense Department’s “constant opposition” over the crash and the recovered remains.
“We just haven’t gotten anything and it’s hard to determine what’s accurate and what’s hearsay, and that’s very difficult,” Ms. Lyon said.
After being told she would never get the chance to hear the black box recording, Ms Lyon said she hoped this would change.
The inquiry was told that when she asked for the help of a social worker to help tell her young son his father was dead, help never arrived.
The Taipans retired two months after the fatal disaster in July, with their service already affected by fleet-wide groundings
The MRH-90 Taipan helicopter crashed into the sea off the coast of Queensland in July 2023
The social worker had tried to call her late husband’s mobile number.
“I thought it was really horrible,” she said.
Mrs Lyon spoke of the pressure she felt from ‘top down’ to hold a funeral as soon as possible, describing her desire to say goodbye to her husband once the remains were identified as ‘supporting the capabilities of the unit’.
She said an Army chaplain who went to her home told her to think of her future husband and future children, in response to her suggestion that her husband’s funeral be held on Father’s Day.
“I couldn’t even plan my husband’s funeral, and it was incredibly confronting and incredibly dismissive,” she said.
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