Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

We have Australian Army aviation assets, as well as other ADF personnel and assets, remaining at short-notice readiness to support any further requests for assistance. In the coming days, we will see the dive team and the crew of HMAS Melville working closely with the US military to continue their planning and recovery operations. The focus will be, of course, on finding and recovering the three missing marines and then on retrieving crucial equipment, such as the flight data recorder, which will aid in accident investigation. As I said, these are complex operations affected by a range of factors, including the state of the aircraft wreckage, which is yet to be determined, and what access divers are able to gain to it. It could, in fact, take some time. There is a United States salvage vessel en route to Shoalwater Bay, which will assist in enabling the recovery of the helicopter, weather and conditions permitting.