Inquiry into deadly crash hears Captain Danniel Lyon expressed concerns over safety of Taipan fleet

The heartbroken widow of a pilot who died along with three other airmen in a Taipan helicopter crash off the Whitsundays last year has told an inquiry her husband had raised red flags about the safety of the aircraft in meetings telling his superiors “someone is going to die from this one day”.

In a morning of tearful evidence, Caitland Lyon said her late husband Captain Danniel Lyon had continually expressed his frustration about the troubled fleet after a MRH-90 crashed into the water in Jervis Bay due to a mechanical failure in March 2023.

She said he was “glad” the fleet had been grounded as he felt the plagued chopper did not react in the way they had been trained for.

Ms Lyon told the inquiry that Captain Lyon felt there was a “growing frustration amongst the aircrew that capability was being prioritised over the safety of the air crew” once the fleet was allowed to fly again.

Four months later the father of two died in a Taipan helicopter crash along with Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Corporal Alexander Naggs and Warrant Officer Class Two Joseph Laycock.

The independent inquiry, led by former judge Margaret McMurdo, is examining the circumstances that led to the fatal crash off of Lindeman Island in July 2023.

The aircraft was seen climbing suddenly before pitching nose-down towards the water.

The entire Taipan fleet has since been retired early, and the inspector-general of the ADF launched this independent investigation.

Concerns raised over ‘stress and fatigue’

Ms Lyon said Troop Commander Lyon was an “exceptional pilot” but had been wary ahead of the Exercise Talisman Sabre.

On the last day she would see him alive he was called away from the family to tend to unforeseen problems and later dropped one of his fellow female troop commanders known at the inquiry as “D 20” at a train station in tears.

“I was concerned things were being rushed at the last minute and I did not believe that the job should be rushed,” Ms Lyon said.

“There was already a mounting stress and fatigue on everyone.”

She said in the days leading up to the fatal crash her late husband spoke of being tired as he was having trouble getting his body clock into “night flight mode”.

She said the pilots were told to try and sleep during the day, but that it was impossible to rest.

“It is f***ed, the entire camp is up and about and talking and working and here we are trying to sleep and it is hot in the tent,” he told her.

The inquiry heard of growing tensions as pilots and aircrew would normally sleep off-site to acclimatise in a quiet space.

Ahead of the fateful flight, Ms Lyon said he had messaged her saying “shit’s gone down” and “D 20” had been put on a flight home after fighting with an immediate superior.

She said he told her the reason was “because D 20 had said she and her crew were too tired and it was unnecessary to fly” at that point.

“Because people had not been sleeping, she wanted her team to catch up before a serious mission the next night.”

Ms Lyon told the inquiry the last contact she had from her late husband was about 9pm on July 28, via a mobile phone message from the cockpit of his aircraft that had the call sign Bushman 83.

She said he told her they were “sitting in the pissing rain” and there had been crew changes with things “being shuffled around” as some of the crew had “maxed out their crew hours”.

“I responded asking him to be safe in the rain but he did not reply.”

Widow says it was ‘cruel’ to give family hope after crash

Ms Lyon told the inquiry she was treated “cruelly” after the accident, being given hope her husband may have still been alive as she was initially told he was “missing”.

While all along she claims defence chiefs knew it was a “catastrophic impact ” and there were no survivors.

“That there was no hope,” she said.

“It was very, very cruel to let me and Noah and my family believe they would find him and bring him home.

“It just would have been easier in the long term to be told he was presumed dead, there was never going to be a good time to tell me that.

“But it was far less cruel than having us hoping and praying for a miracle that was actually impossible.”

She also told the inquiry she had asked for Defence to provide her with a social worker to help tell her son Noah, who was five at the time, that his father had died.

But it never happened because the social worker was ringing her dead husband’s mobile phone, instead of hers.

Ms Lyon also said she was told her husband was not entitled to a military grave as an “honour” as he did not die in war.

She said she was also told his name, as well as the names of the three other men, would be read out at the 6th aviation regiment’s Anzac Day service at Holsworthy Barracks.

But on the day it was not read out, something she said was both confronting and confusing for Noah.

Her two-year-old daughter Lily was too young to understand.

On Tuesday, the inquiry heard from the grieving father of Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Daniel Nugent, about concerns his son also raised in relation to the Taipan’s safety record after the March 2023 crash in Jervis Bay.

The hearing continues.