The Defence Minister added that exercises such as Talisman Sabre are critical to securing the country and hailed the men for “making a difference”.
In a significant intervention, the airline’s domestic CEO accused Sydney Airport of “demonising” its “biggest customer” as it responded to claims it’s hoarding the most lucrative take-off slots to block out smaller rivals.
Flight QG556 landed in Perth at 12:11am on Sunday, on board the Airbus A320neo aircraft PK-GTI. It took off for Jakarta at 1:44am as QG557, landing in the Indonesian capital at 5am local time.
It comes as the Head of Army defended the use of the troubled aircraft and urged people not to jump to conclusions about the cause of the accident.
The aircraft crashed south of Hamilton Island on Friday while participating in Exercise Talisman Sabre, an enormous ‘war game’ involving 30,000 participants.
Pilot David Maddern and his wife Jan, flying in the Jabiru, were killed in the mid-air collision on Friday, but the male pilot in the other aircraft was uninjured.