Afghanistan/Australien — Update to soldiers wounded in helicopter incident

The med­ical con­di­tion of the sev­en Com­man­do sol­diers wound­ed in a heli­copter inci­dent in south­ern Afghanistan yes­ter­day morn­ing (21 June) con­tin­ues to be mon­i­tored and assessed, with four now assessed to be in a sat­is­fac­to­ry con­di­tion, one list­ed as in a seri­ous con­di­tion and two in a very seri­ous con­di­tion.

Six of the sev­en sol­diers under­went surgery yesterday. 

Two of the Aus­tralian sol­diers remain in inten­sive care. 

The sol­diers suf­fered frac­tures, lac­er­a­tions, crush injuries and a head injury. 

A deci­sion has not yet been made when any or all of the injured sol­diers will be moved to the Land­stuhl Region­al Med­ical Cen­tre in Ger­many. No move will occur before their con­di­tion and avail­able flights allow. 

Three Aus­tralian sol­diers and an air­crew of the ISAF heli­copter were killed when their heli­copter crashed ear­ly yes­ter­day morning. 

Sev­en Com­man­dos, three air­crew and a civil­ian inter­preter were wounded. 

The cause of the heli­copter crash is not known but is not believed to be the result of insur­gent action. 

Plan­ning for the repa­tri­a­tion of the three fall­en Aus­tralian sol­diers has begun how­ev­er the date for the return to Aus­tralia has not been confirmed. 

Media con­tact: Defence Media Liai­son: (02) 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664 

Source:
Aus­tralian Depart­ment of Defence