A lone piper played a lament as the coffins of nine Australians killed in a navy helicopter crash in Indonesia were placed in hearses and driven from Sydney airport Piper's lament sends heroes on to families
Eye on Politics & Law Lords: Tears on the Tarmac at airport farewell
The local heros: Lieutenant Mathew Davey, Lieutenant Matthew Goodall, Lieutenant Paul Kimlin, Lieutenant Jonathan King, Petty Officer Stephen Slattery, Leading Seaman Scott Bennet, Squadron Leader Paul McCarthy, Flight Lieutenant Lyn Rowbottom, Sergeant Wendy Jones
They had been in Jakarta just a few days earlier, and yesterday the bodies of the nine servicemen and women killed in the helicopter crash on Nias were back again, lying in coffins on their way home to Australia.
At the Halim military air base in Jakarta, Australian and Indonesian servicemen stood in the baking sun, waiting for the RAAF Hercules C-130 aircraft to land and refuel before heading on to Darwin and Sydney.
When the aircraft arrived, its crew lowered the rear loading ramp, revealing the nine aluminium coffins, each with a wreath of flowers on top of an Australian flag.
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