Army pilot says helicopter responsible for 2020 Canberra bushfire landed for toilet break

An enquiry into the 2020 Canberra bushfires which were started by an army helicopter revealed some shocking details on Monday. According to the ongoing inquest at the ACT coroner’s court, the crew were taking a toilet break when the bushfire started and they took around 45 minutes to alert the ACT Emergency Service Agency about the location. The army major, who was in charge of the MRH-90 Taipan helicopter codenamed ANGEL21, also said that the headlights were responsible for the fire.

The mission assigned to the helicopter was to find remote helipads which could be of use to firefighting teams but it ended up causing a massive fire at the Orroral valley. The internal recordings from the helicopter revealed that part of the crew were outside when the headlights caused the fire and once, they realised what has happened, the crew was ordered to board the helicopter instantly.

While the crew members accepted their part in the accident, the lawyers argued that they were not aware of how hot the headlights could get and said that the crew was late in realising that the fire has started. “Come up, come up, we’ve started a fire, turn the searchlight off,” a crew member was heard shouting in the recording as the defence maintained that all proper procedures were followed after it.

However, the opposing counsel was not convinced with the arguments and said that “at no time did anyone on board notify anyone of the fact they had ignited the fire or the location of the fire”, according to The Guardian. They also pointed that there was a gap in communication during the busefires.