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The Australian government has confirmed that Exercise Pitch Black will be “up and running pretty quickly” following the crash of an Italian Air Force fighter jet earlier this week.
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Defence has also confirmed the downed jet as an EFA 2000 Typhoon aircraft which encountered an unknown issue during a training flight.
The pilot, who was participating in Exercise Pitch Black 24, is safe and well and has been transported to hospital for precautionary checks after ejecting from the aircraft during flying operations, according to a Defence statement on 25 July.
At 10:45am (local time) on Wednesday, 24 July 2024, the pilot made contact with aircrew in the area via radio. Australian Defence Force personnel in Darwin and Tindal responded immediately coordinating the location and recovery of the pilot. The pilot was transported to hospital in Darwin.
Exercise Commander Air Commodore Peter Robinson confirmed the pilot was uninjured, safe and in good spirits.
“Our Defence personnel worked rapidly and efficiently to respond to this situation and worked to help recover the pilot,” AIRCDRE Robinson said.
“We train for these scenarios as part of all of our safety planning and I was pleased to see the integration of international personnel with our own to coordinate the search, rescue and recovery of the pilot to hospital within three hours.
“I would like to thank all of those, including the Northern Territory emergency services, who played a part in getting this pilot back to safety.
“We are a few weeks into the exercise and we have all formed friendships both in the Northern Territory and internationally as we rehearse and practice these complex flying activities.”
Exercise Pitch Black involves about 140 aircraft, 4,500 personnel and 20 nations for exercises in the Northern Territory.
The site, outside of the Darwin and Katherine flying areas, is now the subject of a safety investigation. Defence asks people to avoid the area.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Defence Richard Marles, speaking at the Indian Ocean Defence and Security Conference in Perth, said Exercise Pitch Black had been suspended temporarily.
“We know everyone is okay. This was an aircraft of one of our international partners, so it was not a RAAF jet,” he said.
“The pilot ejected, has been picked up, is safe and is currently in hospital in Darwin. But, you know, we’re pretty confident that injuries are minor. The aircraft itself was lost.
“It happened south of Darwin and so, the site itself where the plane came down has been secured and managed. But thankfully, we’ve managed to get through this without any serious injury.
“And I think that … it’s another moment where we reflect on the professionalism and the excellence of those who wear our nation’s uniform in the way in which they did respond to this. We’re working through some immediate issues around that, but it’s expected that we’ll have the exercise up and running pretty quickly.”
