'The kindest person': tribute for army chopper victims

A recovery effort is under way for the bodies of Captain Danniel Lyon, Lieutenant Maxwell Nugent, Warrant Officer Class Two Joseph Laycock and Corporal Alexander Naggs.

Becoming emotional in parliament, MP Phillip Thompson, an Afghanistan veteran, said he had the honour of serving with Corporal Naggs.

"The nicest, kindest person I've ever met," the MP for Herbert told the lower house on Tuesday.

"Someone that was just there, listening, would talk to everyone."

Mr Thompson said the ADF family was as close as any other, and felt the painful loss.

"The people that have served with these brave men are out there searching," he said.

"Our thoughts, our prayers and my heart is with their family during this time."

The speech came as the government works on a replacement fleet for the Taipan military helicopters.

The crash was the second incident involving a Taipan helicopter this year, after another ditched into the water off the NSW south coast in March during a training exercise.

The former coalition government announced in 2021 the fleet would be replaced by Black Hawks.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the Taipans would remain grounded until the Queensland incident was investigated, but he did not want to raise expectations of a quicker Black Hawk rollout.

"It is both a question of having the airframes come to Australia, but also a question of making sure that all the appropriate training and credentialling is done for those who operate the Black Hawks so that that can be done in a safe way."

The Taipans are due to come out of service at the end of 2024.

Shadow defence minister Andrew Hastie, who flew in Black Hawks when he was with the Special Air Service Regiment, said the new aircraft "can't come soon enough".

He said the Taipan was "not an inherently unsafe aircraft".

"The problem really with this aircraft is it is so magnificently engineered that it is very hard to get the hours out of it that the army wanted."