Pitch Black flying resumes after Typhoon crash

Approximately 140 aircraft and more than 4,000 personnel from 20 nations are participating in this year’s iteration of Pitch Black, with jets operating out of RAAF bases Darwin and Tindal in the Northern Territory and Amberley in Queensland.

Earlier this week, Exercise Commander Air Commodore Peter Robinson confirmed that 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,” Air Commodore 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.”

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This year’s Pitch Black is thought to have the biggest number of participants in the event’s 43-year history.

The exercise exposes participants to complex scenarios whilst utilising some of the most advanced aircraft and battlespace systems in one of the biggest areas of military training airspace worldwide.

For the first time, the Philippines, Spain, Italy, Papua New Guinea and embedded personnel from Fiji and Brunei are participating alongside more traditional exercise allies such as the UK, US and Singapore.