Family marks 10 years since death
The official Defence inquiry into the crash is heavily redacted and reveals little about the fierce battle that the commandos and SAS had just fought against the Taliban insurgents in Shah Wali Kot that month.
Australian War Memorial director Dr Brendan Nelson called the action the most “significant battle in Australia’s military history for 50 years”.
Thirteen Australians would be awarded for gallantry for their acts at Shah Wali Kot, including Corporal Ben Roberts Smith, who received the Victoria Cross.
Privates Chuck, Palmer and Aplin were passengers aboard a US Blackhawk with seven other Australian soldiers one week later.
The aircraft was flying in darkness, shortly before 4am local time.
Flying conditions were poor and in the moments before the crash, a US crew member was heard to ask “how low are you going down sir?”
Despite their high level of training, skill set and night vision equipment, the crew crashed into a slight embankment in the desert floor.
The investigation would determine that the cause of the crash was a “lack of aircrew coordination”.
Dr Nelson described the titanic forces at play to the ABC.
“This was an experience beyond the comprehension of any one of us,” Dr Nelson said.
“You’re travelling at close to 300 kilometres an hour.
“You’ve got helicopter that’s five times the weight of a standard car, rotor blades, immense rotational forces involved in the crash.”
Surviving commandos would describe the crash as a “freak accident”.
All three Australians – Chuck, Aplin and Palmer, were deemed to have suffered non survivable wounds, despite the best efforts of their mates, medics and doctors at the hospital at Kandahar air base.
Three years later, American pilot Trevor Baucom, himself paralysed from the waist down in the crash, said he thought about the accident “every day.”
“I try to live for the guys who didn’t get a chance,” Mr Baucom said.
Benjamin Chuck is commemorated at the Avenue of Honour in Yungaburra.