On 12 June 1996 the Australian Army suffered shocking losses.

Fifteen soldiers from the Special Air Service Regiment were killed.

Three soldiers from the Army's 5th Aviation Regiment were killed.

On the evening of 12 June 1996 two S-70-A9 Blackhawk helicopters from the 5th Aviation Regiment carrying SASR troopers collided during a live-fire counter-terrorism/special-recovery operation exercise at Fire Support Base Barbara in the High Range Training Area near Townsville.

The SASR and Blackhawks from 5AR were training for the Sydney 2000 Olympics. "Exercise Day Rotor 96" took place on the second day of the exercise.   The whole exercise was conducted in darkness - requiring the pilots to use night vision goggles (NVG).

Six aircraft were approaching the target area when the crash happened.  At what should have been 30 seconds from the landing zone, one of the helicopters veered to the right, clipping the tail rotor of another helicopter.

One Blackhawk crashed immediately killing 12 personnel on board, while the other was able to make a crash landing but burst into flames, killing six.

Crash survivors, soldiers from the other helicopters and exercise staff risked the flames and exploding ammunition to rescue their comrades and retrieve the bodies of the dead.  

During the week I've been exchanging emails with a mate who was in the SASR.  He said "All our training is for real, most of the guys killed over the years have been killed in training accidents".

He went on to talk about attention to every detail, taking nothing for granted, never allowing complacency to slip in and rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal.  "Burkey flew me on ops in XXXX - great pilot".

You'll see why my mate thinks so highly of then Captain Burke in the videos below.

The professionalism of our SASR is the reason they are so widely respected throughout the profession of arms.  It's certainly not for their diversity nor their cultural training scores.

This documentary from the ABC's Four Corners tells the story of that terrible night.

At the going down of the sun

And in the morning

We will remember them.

Lest We Forget.