A teenager doing army recruitment training "went blank" before letting go of a ladder and falling metres into a flooded tunnel, a NSW inquest into his death has heard.
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Private Liam Wolf, 18, died two days after the fall, on April 21, 2019.
Pte Wolf likely suffered a cardiac arrest and then sustained a brain injury in the fall, expert witnesses are expected to tell the NSW Coroners Court.
The fall came as the Queensland man was nearing the end of the army's 80-day basic training course for new recruits at Blamey Barracks in Kapooka, in the NSW Riverina.
The recruits rose at 4am and marched five kilometres with weighted packs. Then they set out to do an obstacle course designed to test the resilience and teamwork skills they'd been building.
Gabrielle Worth, a fellow recruit and Pte Wolf's battle buddy during the 12 weeks of training, had climbed the four-metre metal ladder out of the tunnel, then crouched to watch him ascend the ladder behind her.
"About halfway up, his face just goes blank," Pte Worth told police in a taped interview.
"His eyes are wide open but they're not seeing anything ... then in a split second he just lets go."
He fell into the dark concrete tunnel, his head submerged in cold ankle-deep water.
"He just wasn't moving, he was just mouth open, eyes wide open but no movement or anything," Private Dario Moran-Arnold, who was in the tunnel when Pte Wolf fell, said in his police interview.
Pte Moran-Arnold and a corporal cradled his head above the water and performed CPR in a desperate attempt to save his life.
A dozen people helped to stretcher him out of the underground tunnel, before emergency services took him to Wagga Base Hospital and then by helicopter to Sydney.
Pte Wolf had been moving through the obstacle course slower than normal, Pte Worth thought.
But she said he was a quiet person and not the type to complain.
She described the obstacle course as stressful because it was the culmination of all their training.
"The whole time you're working towards this day and it's been drilled into you that this is the day for you to shine," Pte Worth said.
Though the focus was on good technique, recruits were timed as they went through the obstacle course and a trophy awarded to the section which could complete it the fastest.
Over the 12 weeks of training Pte Wolf was treated twice for viral illnesses, the inquest was told on Monday.
The inquest will explore whether recruits were sufficiently prepared for the field exercises and the obstacle cause , and whether they were sufficiently monitored for developing medical issues.
The coroner will also consider whether there were sufficient safety precautions in relation to the tunnel, particularly the risks posed by the water.
One possibility is that safety helmets should have been used, counsel assisting the inquest Sophie Callan SC said.
Deputy State Coroner Derek Lee and lawyers went to look at the tunnel firsthand in April.
The tunnel has not been used since Pte Wolf's death.
Pte Wolf was just 17 when he signed up for the army. An award has been created in his name for the army recruit with the best rifle shot.
The inquest continues on Tuesday.
Australian Associated Press
