Several defense insiders have claimed that Australia’s fleet of Taipan multi-role military helicopters did not receive the necessary software upgrade to operate safely, according to a report by ABC News Australia.
The claim surfaced following last month’s incident in which an MRH-90 Taipan chopper crashed near a New South Wales beach, injuring two crew members.
Although no official result of the investigation has been issued, sources familiar with the matter blamed a so-called “hot starting” as the main reason for the ditching.
A hot start occurs when an operator restarts the helicopter’s engine shortly after powering down in the middle of a mission.
However, former pilots revealed that the Taipan’s turboshaft engines are not designed to be switched on and off repeatedly during an operation.
A simple IT patch could have prevented the devastating incident, according to the defense insiders.
Continued Operations
Sources have been calling on the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to upgrade the country’s entire fleet of 47 MRH-90 Taipans to prevent possible engine failures in the future.
However, the ADF seemingly has not heeded their call, even ordering the return of the troubled choppers to normal operations.
It also announced that “risk mitigations” are already in place to avoid the same ditching incident from happening again.
“The risk mitigations will have minimal impact on planned flying operations,” a defense spokesperson told ABC News.
Australia plans to replace its entire Taipan fleet with 40 UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters from the US.