RIP Brothers,:
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegrap...rom=public_rss
Crack SAS trio, war hero killed
By Ian McPhedran, Matt Cunningham, Mark Buttler and Dina Rosendorff
April 10, 2007 12:00
THREE of Australia's top special forces troops, including a hero from the Afghanistan campaign, have died in a car crash at a top-secret Victorian training base.
The men were returning to the joint SAS-Australian Secret Intelligence Service facility at Swan Island, near Queenscliff, when their hire car left a causeway and plunged into the sea.
They were SAS soldiers Sgt Craig "Crackers" Linacre, 34, Cpl Michael McAvoy, 32, and Cpl Dave O'Neil, aged in his early 30s.
The vehicle in which they were travelling was moving at high speed before hurtling off a bend in the causeway then into Port Phillip Bay, witnesses say.
The three soldiers, all married with children, died despite desperate attempts by colleagues to free them from their submerged wreck.
Sgt Linacre, 34, Cpl McAvoy and Cpl O'Neil, who worked as counter-terror instructors and were on a training course, were on their way home from a night out.
Two colleagues travelling in a vehicle behind jumped into the water, somehow smashed a window and dragged two of the men out of the two-metre deep water.
They gave CPR but their comrades could not be saved.
The Daily Telegraph has been told the driver may been travelling too fast to negotiate the bend.
"They've been fanging it. They've been airborne when they've come off," a source said.
There is speculation the men had been incapacitated by the impact and that was why they were unable to scramble out.
It is believed they had been at Queenscliff's Esplanade Hotel before heading home soon after 1am yesterday.
Police say they do not know if alcohol was a factor.
The men used a security pass to go through a metal gate at the entrance to the bridge that links Queenscliff and Swan Island.
Locals and holiday makers said they heard a car roaring around the streets just before the accident.
Queenscliff resident Sally Petty said she heard a car "hooning around" not long before the accident.
"I woke up and I was worried they might side-swipe our car," she said.
"They were just driving really fast and you noticed it because you don't get that around here at all."
Paul Reid said he was woken by the sound of car engines just before 1.30am.
"I heard the car go across the bridge. I think it was going pretty quick by the sound of it," he said.
"I heard it get to the end of the bridge and few seconds later there was this muffled thud.
"I could hear these guys screaming but I didn't know where it was coming from.
"I got in my car and shone my lights at them but I couldn't really see anything, then one of the guys came running back over the bridge to the gate. He was screaming.
"I could hear him speaking on the phone. He said they were trapped in the car and seven feet under water."
Mr Reid said the man broke a window in the gatehouse so he could open the security gates and let the emergency services through.
Police divers worked at first light to free the third body before the car was pulled from the water.
Sen-Sgt Jeff Smith of the Victoria Police major collision investigation unit said the men who jumped into dark, cold water then smashed the submerged window to drag their mates out had put in a "huge effort".
"They did the best they could. Unfortunately, they weren't able to save them," he said.
Sen-Sgt Smith said there was no evidence the men had been skylarking before the tragedy.
He said reconstruction work, scientific tests and witness statements would need to be done and the investigation would probably take two months to complete
Sgt Linacre was awarded a Commendation for Gallantry for his work against the Taliban in Afghanistan last year.
He also served in East Timor and Iraq.
A brilliant singer and guitarist, he was a member of the SAS rock band "The Externals".
According to his mates he was able to lift the spirits of his comrades during even the toughest of operations with a quick tune.
The 11-year SAS veteran married his long-time girlfriend a year ago and had a step-child.
Cpl McAvoy was married with children and joined the SAS six years ago after a nine-year army career.
He served in Iraq and Afghanistan and was known as a quiet professional.
Cpl O'Neil was also married with children and was a friend to everyone who met him.
All three were members of Number 2 SAS Squadron and were regarded by comrades as absolute professionals and dedicated fitness fanatics who loved their jobs and their country.
Special Operations Commander Australia, Major-General Mike Hindmarsh, said the tragedy was a blow to the Australian Special Forces community.
"The loss of any young life in circumstances such as these seems such a horrible waste – these were fine young Australians who had served their nation with great distinction and my heart goes out to their families," he said.
"What is equally tragic is that all three of these soldiers survived some of the toughest combat the ADF has seen since Vietnam, yet they died tragically in a motor vehicle accident."
Swan Island is regarded as a finishing school for counter insurgency and guerilla warfare operatives.
Only the very best senior SAS soldiers are sent there.
The SAS and Australia's overseas spies from ASIS conduct joint exercises at the base, which is also used for weapons training, marine insertion training, top-secret briefings and counter insurgency training.
The SAS, which trains under near operational intensity, has a long history of accidental and training deaths.
More than 40 have perished in non-operational incidents including 15 who died when two Blackhawk helicopters collided near Townsville in June 1996 and SAS Warrant officer David Nary who died in a driving accident in Kuwait last year.
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