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August 1st, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda The former head of Australian operations in the Middle East, now the army’s deputy chief, rode on the ramp of a Chinook helicopter in Afghanistan a few weeks before a young soldier died doing the same thing, an inquiry has been told.
Lieutenant Marcus Case, 26, had been in Afghanistan just three weeks when he was killed in a crash involving a helicopter from Rotary Wing Group 6 on May 30 last year on a trip to recover an American Black Hawk.
He was ramp riding on the back of the Chinook when it began “porpoising” – its nose jolting up and down – as co-pilot Captain Stephen Young prepared for descent.
Lt Case fell out of the aircraft still attached to it with a strap called the Zorba Z51, before it hit the ground and caught fire.
Wing Commander Alf Jonas, who headed the probe into the crash, said his investigators found the practice known as ramp riding, carrying passengers in the rear of Chinook helicopters with their legs dangling over the edge, was considered normal among Rotary Air Wing Group 6.
Lead counsel assisting, Colonel Gary Hevey, said a few weeks before the fatal crash, Joint Task Force Commander Major General Angus Campbell, while head of Australian operations in the Middle East, rode the ramp of a Chinook.
“There was a powerful precedent set by that … group to those who had allowed Lieutenant Case to ride the ramp on the 30th of May (2011),” Cmdr Jonas said.
Maj Gen Campbell was promoted to deputy chief of the army this year.
Warrant Officer Shane Reid raised concerns that members of Rotary Group Wing 6 were ramp riding in Afghanistan at a C Squadron 5 Aviation Regiment standards and safety meeting in Townsville in March 2011.
WO Reid circulated an email on March 21 last year advising air crew that harnesses did not provide suitable crash restraint, and therefore all crew should be seated unless required to move around the aircraft to perform their duties.
“It could not be stated any clearer,” he said.
The commission of inquiry hearing in Melbourne continues.
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