SAS Black Hawk crash hero Gary Proctor says training must be on cutting edge

A SAS soldier who helped lead the rescue of colleagues in the 1996 Black Hawk disaster does not believe the practice hostage-rescue mission was a mistake or that the elite regiment should adopt more cautious training standards.

The army will on Friday commemorate the 30th anniversary of Australia’s worst peacetime military aviation crash, which killed 18 soldiers and injured 12, with low-key ceremonies at the SAS headquarters in Perth and in Townsville.

They will not be open to the media although a public service will be held at St James’ Church in Sydney.

One survivor said the lower-key ceremonies reflected a wish by the Defence Force to emphasise Anzac Day as the day to commemorate the sacrifices of military personnel and their families.

Among those attending the Perth event will be former corporal Gary Proctor, now 62, who was one of three soldiers awarded the Star of Courage for repeatedly entering the burning fuselage of a Black Hawk to rescue other soldiers while ammunition exploded around them.

“I never had any doubts it was the right exercise to be done at the time,” Mr Proctor told The Nightly this week. “What they do in real life is what they’re training for.”

Reflecting its high training standards, the SAS has lost 33 soldiers in training and 16 in combat, according to the Australian SAS Association. They include one of the regiment’s top parachutists, Warrant Officer 2 Lachlan Muddle, who was killed in an evening parachute exercise on May 11 this year near Nowra in NSW.

Many more have been injured. In March, the Federal Ombudsman said it had received 65 complaints that interrogation training used by the special forces had gone too far and caused lasting trauma.

‘Toughest conversation’

The 1996 crash near Townsville, which an inquiry partly blamed on inadequate planning, led to important changes in military aviation, especially assaults in helicopters, which were used extensively by the SAS and commandos in the second half of the Afghanistan war to avoid bombs hidden on roads.

Five Black Hawks were flying a line abreast, followed by a sixth helicopter, when the helicopter on the far left tried to correct its position after veering off course around 7.20pm. Its rotor blades hit the tail of the second Black Hawk, sending it to the ground, where it exploded.

The first Black Hawk crash landed and caught fire.

Major Bob Hunter, the then-commander of the SAS’s 1 Squadron, was in a sixth Black Hawk following the other five. While the other helicopters landed and provided medical care to the survivors, Major Hunter had to remain airborne to explain the extent of the casualties to health authorities in Townsville, where they were flown for treatment.

He also had to contact SAS commander Lieutenant Colonel Mike Silverstone to tell him about the crash and the names of the dead so their families could be informed, a conversation he said was “pretty well the toughest” of his life.

The crash “had a massive impact on my life,” he said this week. “I’m a 32-year-old major. You think you are in the job in the prime in your life. The accountabilities and responsibilities were there immediately afterwards.”

While much of the public focus was on working out what went wrong and who was to blame, Major Hunter and other SAS officers were responsible for filling the hole that had opened up in Australia’s ability to respond to terrorist attacks and rescue hostages.

“We had to reconstitute that within the regiment within 72 hours,” he said this week. “That became our immediate focus.”

Support for veterans

The deaths exposed shortfalls in support for soldiers injured and killed in training. Within three days of the accident, businessman and former UK SAS soldier Jeff Kazim began contacting prominent Perth figures to seek help establishing a charity for soldiers, and veterans and their families.

Launched on October 2, 1996, the SAS Resources Fund has given away some $10 million. The recipients include children of those who died in the crash who received assistance until they were old enough to work.

“This organisation was put together by people outside of the military and outside government to provide more support for people who serve our country,” the fund’s chairman, James McMahon, said this week. “It’s a very Australian thing to do.”

The Federal Government has been criticised for cutting some veterans’ services in this year’s Budget, including ending funding for the Invictus Games, a paralympic-style competition for wounded, injured and ill military personnel and veterans founded by Prince Harry. The funding was later reinstated.

Mr McMahon was reluctant to criticise the Government, which committed $800 million in response to the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide. “The Government provides a lot more support than it did 30 years ago,” he said.

A spokesperson for the Defence Force said: “Thirty years on, Defence honours the service and sacrifice of our fallen soldiers, and pays tribute to their enduring contribution to the Australian Army and the nation. We also recognise the exceptional courage and selflessness shown by survivors and rescuers in the aftermath.”

Those who died were: Captain Timothy Stevens, Sergeant Hugh Ellis, Corporal Michael Bird, Corporal Andrew Constantinidis, Corporal Darren Oldham, Corporal Brett Tombs, Lance Corporal Gordon Callow, Lance Corporal Glen Hagan, Lance Corporal David Johnstone, Trooper Jonathon Church, Trooper David Frost, Trooper Timothy McDonald, Corporal Mihran Avedissian, Corporal Darren Smith, Signalman Hendrik Peeters, Captain Kevin Hales, Captain John Berrigan and Corporal Mick Baker.

Fifteen were from the SAS and three from the 5th Aviation Regiment.