Australian army helicopter crash: hope of finding crew alive ‘lost’ after ‘catastrophic incident’, Richard Marles says

Richard Marles said the MRH-90 Taipan helicopter crash during a military training exercise in waters off Queensland’s Whitsunday Islands was a ‘catastrophic incident’. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

The defence minister, Richard Marles, says authorities have lost hope of finding alive the four missing crew members of an Australian defence force helicopter involved in a “catastrophic” crash during a training exercise on Friday night.

Marles promised a thorough investigation into the incident, while the chief of the ADF, Gen Angus Campbell, promised that the recovery operation would seek to recover the bodies.