- For other vessels of the same name, see HMAS Kanimbla.
The second HMAS Kanimbla (L-51) is a training and helicopter ship, originally built as the Tank Landing Ship (LST) USS Saginaw for the U.S. Navy by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Company at San Diego in California. The ship was acquired by the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) and commissioned as Kanimbla on 29 August 1994, and used as an amphibious transport ship (LPA).
The ship is named for the Kanimbla Valley , west of Blackheath in the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, Australia.
The ship was part of Operation Sumatra Assist , the Australian Defence Force (ADF) humanitarian aid to victims of the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia. During its subsequent return voyage to Australia, it was recalled for Operation Sumatra Assist Phase II to help victims of the 2005 Sumatran earthquake.
At about 09:30 UTC 2 April 2005, one of the ship's Sea King helicopters crashed while approaching the village of Amadraya in the south of the island of Nias, off the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia. Nine ADF personnel were killed — seven men and two women, from all three ADF services. Two others were recovered alive from the site by the other Sea King operating from HMAS Kanimbla and transferred to it for medical assistance in its well equipped hospital facilities. [1] [2]
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