Matt Wright told he needs to 'know who to trust' in phone recording played to court
Remote Helicopters Australia director Michael Burbidge was the first witness to be called on Friday in Mr Wright's Supreme Court trial after the celebrity crocodile wrangler pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The charges relate to the aftermath of a 2022 helicopter crash that killed Mr Wright's co-star Christopher "Willow" Wilson and seriously injured pilot Sebastian Robinson.
Prosecutors have stressed Mr Wright is not accused of any wrongdoing in relation to the crash but allege he sought to frustrate the investigation that followed out of a concern it would reveal evidence he doctored flight records.
On Friday, jurors were played a covert telephone intercept of a conversation between Mr Wright and Mr Burbidge that allegedly captured the pilot telling Mr Wright someone had "written in the log book" for the crashed helicopter "clock found disconnected again".
"You need to find out who f***in' said it so you know who to trust and not to trust," Mr Burbridge says on the recording.
In response to questions from Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC, Mr Burbidge said the conversation was not about the under-recording of hours but "a rumour that an engineer had put something in the log book".
"Aren't you really in this phone call saying to Matt 'You better get the log book and see what's been written in it here because it might catch you out'?" Mr Gullaci asked.
"That's what you're implying and I'm telling you I just rang a friend," Mr Burbidge replied.
Mr Burbridge also denied ever speaking to Mr Wright about disconnecting the Hobbs meter flight-hour recorder in his helicopters.
"You were concerned about it because you knew it had been happening?" Mr Gullaci asked.
"I don't work for Matt so I don't know what he does, he didn't tell me anything, sir," Mr Burbidge replied.
"That wasn't my concern, my concern was just that I'd heard this and wanted Matt to check it out, nothing more nothing [less]."
Timothy Luck, who had been collecting crocodile eggs on the trip before Mr Robinson's helicopter crashed, also testified on Friday, saying he had seen the Hobbs meter in Mr Wright's helicopters disconnected on multiple occasions before the crash.
"There's been periods of time when I've been in a machine and seen it not working and asked the question," he said.
Mr Luck said he had also "seen it physically disconnected once before" during "a crocodile egg mission towards the Arafura Swamp".
"In the morning of the second day, we were getting the helicopter ready," he said.
"Sebastian Robinson's there with his Leatherman undoing the dash and disconnecting the Hobbs meter.
"Chris Wilson was standing in front of the bubble, the windscreen of the helicopter, and he was pretending to take a photo of Sebastian Robinson doing it, with his phone.
"He sort of had a laugh and told Chris to F off and Chris laughed back, saying 'I'm just joking.'"
Mr Luck also told the court he filled up Mr Robinson's helicopter "completely" minutes before it went down.
"Chris Wilson and Sebastian Robinson sort of teased me a little bit to say 'Oi, don't do that', them two boys gave me a bit of stick and we carried on."
Under cross-examination by Matt Wright's defence barrister David Edwardson KC, Mr Luck denied lying to support his friend Sebastian Robinson.
He said he had "no doubt" he saw either Mr Robinson or Chris Wilson removing the dual controls from the helicopter, IDW, before it left Mount Borradaile and agreed that was part of the reason he was confident he had gone to help the men fill up.
"They were taking longer than everyone else, either one of them or both of them were taking the duals out of the machine," he said.
Mr Edwardson asked "if I tell you that the dual controls were not removed at Mount Borradaile" whether that would change his testimony "in any way".
"No, it would not," he said.
Mr Edwardson then took Mr Luck through statements he had made to police indicating an Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) investigator had told him there was no fuel in the helicopter.
"After the lady from ATSB told you that they had found no fuel in the tank … you've come along to support your friend Seb haven't you?" he asked.
"Of course I support my friend, he's my friend," he replied.
"But there's no way that I would be lying in police statements or to the court after somebody's died and somebody's seriously injured to support him in that way."
The trial continues on Monday.
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