On Sunday morning, a military helicopter carrying more than 20 US Marines crashed during an exercise in Australia’s Northern Territory, resulting in the death of three military personnel and injuries to the remaining twenty.
This tragic event occurred on Melville Island off the coast of Darwin while personnel from the U.S., Australia, Indonesia, Philippines and Timor-Leste were involved in exercise “Predator’s Run 2023” drills.
According to a statement from Australia’s Department of Defense that was released to Fox News Digital, no Australians were involved in this crash which took place at around 9:30 am local time.
The Marine Rotational Force reported that it was an MV-22B Osprey helicopter that had crashed with three casualties and five other passengers requiring serious medical attention being airlifted to Royal Darwin Hospital for treatment soon after the incident occurred.
Rescue efforts are still underway and an investigation has been launched into what caused this tragedy.
Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said at a press conference that they were doing everything they can to bring those affected safely back to Darwin for medical treatment.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated “Our focus as a government and as a department of defense is very much on incident response and on making sure that every support and assistance is given at this difficult time” while Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles commented that victims sustained a wide range of injuries, some critical, upon impact from the crash itself.
The U.S Department of Defense released a statement saying it was aware of what had happened but could not provide any further information or details regarding what might have caused this accident at this point in time due to its investigation being ongoing into what happened leading up to it.
As a result of this tragedy taking place Exercise Predator’s Run has been paused until further notice impacting military exercises across multiple countries including 500 from the United States, 120 from Indonesia, 120 from Philippines and 50 from Timor Leste who all take part each year in these drills.
