Latest news with #NorthernTerritorySupremeCourt
West Australian
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- West Australian
Trial for Outback Wrangler Matt Wright hears explosive claims
A Netflix reality star 'idolised' by his staff was an 'anti-vaxxer' who broke Covid-19 laws and was allegedly secretly recorded talking about tinkering with flight records while visiting a chopper crash survivor left paraplegic in hospital, a jury has heard. The extraordinary claims about Outback Wrangler Matt Wright were made this week during his trial in the Northern Territory Supreme Court, where he is charged with three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice. The 45-year-old celebrity is accused of failing to accurately record flight times in the Robinson-R-44 that crashed in February 2022, killing his co-star Chris 'Willow' Wilson. It is not alleged Mr Wright is responsible for the crash. Mr Wilson, 34, was dangling from a sling attached to the helicopter during a dangerous crocodile egg collecting mission when the chopper crashed in Arnhem Land. CHOPPER RECORDS ALLEGEDLY FUDGED Pilot Seb Robinson, who survived the crash but is now a paraplegic, testified his former boss was an 'anti-vaxxer' despite Mr Wright going to two Covid restricted areas – the remote helicopter crash site and the injured pilot's Brisbane hospital room. He told the jury the main reason Mr Wright was not on the egg mission was 'because he was an anti-vaxxer'. At the time, there were strict Covid rules for anyone entering remote areas in the Territory, where they needed to provide proof of vaccination and take a rapid antigen test. The jury previously heard Mr Wright flew to the crash site with Wild Harvest NT director Mick Burns and off-duty senior NT Police officer Neil Mellon. Following the crash, Mr Robinson spent one month in hospital, where Covid restrictions meant two people could visit and everyone needed to provide a valid vaccination certificate. Mr Robinson said he had just come out of a coma, was heavily sedated and 'hallucinating' but 'vaguely' remembered a visit from Mr Wright and his wife Kaia on March 11. 'I have a vivid memory of him having some sort of paperwork in his hands,' Mr Robinson said. He alleged his boss wanted to move 'a few' hours from the crashed helicopter – with the call sign IDW – to Mr Robinson's personal chopper, with the call sign ZXZ. Mr Robinson, 28, also alleged Mr Wright 'asked to go through my phone and delete a few things'. 'I remember looking over and seeing him holding my phone and flicking through it and deleting things,' Mr Robinson said. The jury heard the former pilot also deleted 'some stuff', including phone notes for start and stop times for IDW during egg collection trips. 'It was a very hard time for me. I didn't know who to trust and I panicked and went along with it,' he said. Mr Robinson alleged on Mr Wright's second hospital visit he brought Jai Thomlinson to again discuss the transfer of hours from IDW to ZXZ. 'I just remember having concerns about what was happening,' Mr Robinson said. 'I said I didn't feel comfortable doing it,' he said. 'I don't think (Mr Wright) was upset … he sort of said: 'That's OK.'' A secret mobile audio recording of this hospital visit allegedly captured Mr Wright talking about IDW flight times over the phone. Mr Robinson admitted he initially repeatedly lied to investigators because he 'panicked' and was worried about losing his pilot's licence. PILOT'S COCAINE PARTYING Mr Robinson admitted he used cocaine 'a couple times a year' – up to 10 times over 12 months – but he denied he was a 'raging cocaine junkie'. The former pilot said he had never flown a helicopter while intoxicated, either by drugs or alcohol. He admitted he sometimes supplied cocaine for his mates and footy players, as well as flying small amounts of booze into Aboriginal communities. But Mr Robinson denied being a 'drug dealer' while being questioned about a series of texts about his wild partying. Mr Wright's defence counsel David Edwardson accused Mr Robinson of 'sourcing and supplying' cocaine from 2018 to the time of the crash. Mr Edwardson read messages from the pilot's friends asking 'are you getting more coke?', 'Seb any chance you know where to get the good stuff?' and 'anyone got bags?'. In one message exchange, Mr Robinson told a friend he was 'crook as a dog', with his mate replying 'snorting too much coke out of Matty's arse?'. Mr Robinson said the friend knew Mr Wright. But the lawyer has said the reality star had a 'zero tolerance' approach to drugs. Under cross-examination, Mr Robinson was also grilled about a message sent to a mate in November 2019, saying there were 'footy players in town wanting bags' and other texts referring to 'zingers' and 'pills'. 'Are you implying I'm a drug dealer? … No,' Mr Robinson said. While Mr Robinson did not believe he was a trafficker, Justice Alan Blow explained: 'It is trafficking, even if you're not making any money for yourself.' Trace amounts of cocaine were detected in Mr Robinson's blood, which prosecutor Jason Gullaci said experts were likely to say was from use days before the crash. Mr Robinson admitted to flying in booze to remote communities, but said he did not sell the alcohol. He said 'on occasion' he would take a small amount of alcohol under the seat of his chopper for people in Arnhem Land. PILOT'S INJURIES Mr Robinson said his last memory from that fateful day was 'having a laugh' with his mate in the chopper. The jury was shown a photo of Mr Wilson piloting the Robinson R-44, with the image appearing to capture the fuel gauge between three-quarters and completely full mark. Mr Robinson said at that level, the helicopter should have been able to travel from Noonamah to King River and back. He became emotional as he shared his next memory – waking up in hospital, then being told his friend was dead and he would likely never walk again. Mr Robinson's spinal cord was completely severed, he had 12 broken ribs and puncturing in his lungs. His neck, elbow and both ankles were also fractured. He said he struggled with his memory due to a traumatic brain injury. NETFLIX STAR AN 'IDOL' Fellow helicopter pilot Jock Purcell told the jury he took official aviation records from Mr Robinson's home two days after the crash but could not recall who asked him to do it. He said he did not show the logbook to anyone or take photos of the official records, but was later asked by Mr Robinson to return the records. 'I took it home, and then Seb's brothers come and got it from my house,' Mr Purcell said. However, in a tapped telephone conversation between Mr Purcell and Mr Wright five months after the crash, the pair allegedly discussed Mr Robinson talking to investigators, the crashed chopper's maintenance release and Hobbs Meter, which records flight hours. 'Something had gone on with the Hobbs there, I dunno, they've moved it forward or some f***ing thing as well,' Mr Wright said. 'I'm just trying to think how much Sebby's, or what Sebby's tried to say to them, if anything even.' The pair then said some of that information could have been gathered from the maintenance release, which pilots fill out to record flight hours and service histories of helicopters. Three years after the bugged call, Mr Purcell told the court he was unsure if it was related to the crash investigation. Mr Purcell, who arrived at the crash scene, initially said he did not remember anyone approaching but then said the only thing removed were a few headsets. However, under cross examination, Mr Purcell said: 'I know someone lifted the dash of the helicopter.' Mr Purcell said he checked to see why the chopper might have gone down, and happened to notice the Hobbs Meter was connected. But Mr Gullaci alleged the sole purpose for Mr Purcell to look under the dash was to inspect this device 'because you knew there was a practice among Matt Wright's helicopters of the Hobbs Meter being disconnected'. 'And you wanted to see whether it was connected or not, for when investigators turned up to look at the crashed helicopter?' Mr Gullaci asked. Mr Purcell said he did not believe that was the case. When asked what else he could have been inspecting, the experienced pilot said: 'I'm not an investigator so I don't know.' However, Mr Purcell had already conceded there was a pattern of not recording flight hours, and had previously seen both Mr Wright and Mr Robinson disconnect the Hobbs Meter. He said there were times when the flight hour recorder was disconnected because 'it was getting close to service'. Mr Robinson also made full admissions to the jury of his own dodgy record keeping practices, which he said were common across the Territory helicopter industry. After almost a decade in the industry, Mr Robinson alleged he had worked for two other businesses which had similarly failed to properly record flight hours. Mr Robinson agreed he continued to 'break the rules' while working at Mr Wright's company. '(Mr Wright) would say 'pop the clock for this trip',' Mr Robinson alleged. He also said Mr Wright 'controlled all aspects of his aircraft regarding maintenance scheduling'. Mr Robinson said employees 'absolutely' followed Mr Wright's directions. 'We were young men, we looked up to him,' he said. 'Everyone looked at Matt as an idol. He'd say 'jump' and they'd say 'how high?' 'He had an aura about him. 'Everyone wanted to be around him, work for him, everyone bent over backwards to try and be a part of what he was doing.' The trial continues.
West Australian
5 days ago
- West Australian
TV star Matt Wright asked paraplegic pilot to ‘manipulate' flight records and ‘deleted things' from his phone
A paraplegic pilot who survived a fatal chopper crash says reality television star Matt Wright visited him in hospital and asked him to manipulate flight records before deleting data from his phone. Sebastian Robinson has told the jury in Mr Wright's criminal trial that he was still heavily sedated, in 'very bad shape' and 'hallucinating' when the celebrity croc-wrangler visited him in hospital in March 2022. Just days earlier – on February 28 – Mr Robinson was critically injured when the helicopter he was flying crashed during a crocodile egg collecting mission at West Arnhem Land. His friend and egg collector Chris Wilson, who had been slinging beneath the chopper, was killed. The aircraft – a Robinson R44, registered VH-IDW – was owned and operated by Mr Wright's since-liquidated company Helibrook. Mr Wright is on trial in the Northern Territory Supreme Court after being charged with three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the investigation into the fatal crash. The 45-year-old Top End tourism operator has pleaded not guilty to all charges. During his second day of evidence Mr Robinson told the jury that Mr Wright visited him in Royal Brisbane Hospital twice after the crash. The first visit, with his wife Kaia, was on March 11. Mr Robinson said he was hallucinating and 'in a very bad shape'. 'I had tubes coming out of me everywhere, I had braces on my neck, ankles and elbow,' he told the court. 'I was still heavily sedated and under a lot of medication. 'If I wanted to get out of bed I had to put a neck brace on, I had to get a hoist to lift me into a wheelchair.' Mr Robinson said Mr Wright brought some documents with him to the hospital. 'I remember laying in the bed looking down at an arrangement of documents all across in front of me,' he said. Under questioning from crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC, Mr Robinson confirmed Mr Wright had left two documents at the hospital and his mother, Noelene Chellingworth, took a photograph of them. Mr Gullaci asked Mr Robinson why Mr Wright had visited. The 32-year-old said the Outback Wrangler host had wanted 'to manipulate hours on my aircraft'. 'He asked if I would consider putting any of his hours, from his helicopter, on to my helicopter.' The court heard Mr Robinson was being asked to put egg-collecting hours flown in VH-IDW on to his own helicopter, registered VH-ZXZ, which was not equipped for egg collecting. 'ZXZ was not fitted with dual hooks to sling people,' he said. 'It was not used for the purpose of human external cargo and was not fitted with the equipment to do so. 'I was still in a pretty bad way, very confused and knew something wasn't right and I said I'd think about it, from memory. 'I remember something along the lines of him saying, 'Just have a think about it and I'll come back and see you tomorrow'.' Mr Wright then visited Mr Robinson in hospital again on March 13 and brought his friend Jai Tomlinson with him. Mr Wright allegedly brought up the transfer of flight hours from IDW to ZXZ. 'I just remember having concerns about what was happening,' Mr Robinson said. 'I said I didn't feel comfortable doing it. 'I don't think he was upset, from the way I remember it he sort of said, 'that's OK',' he said. Mr Robinson alleged Mr Wright also asked for the injured pilots personal mobile phone. 'He asked to go through my phone and delete a few things,' Mr Robinson said. 'I remember looking over and seeing him holding my phone and flicking through it and deleting things.' Mr Robinson said he also 'vaguely' remembers 'deleting notes out of my phone' while Mr Wright was with him at hospital. 'Start and stop times for IDW for egg collection,' he said. 'They were notes in my iPhone that I would send to him, for example, at the end of the week after a week of collecting. 'It was a very hard time for me. I didn't know who to trust and I panicked and went along with it.' Snippets of a secret recording made during Mr Wright's hospital visit were also played to the jury. In the recording Mr Wright can allegedly be heard talking to someone on his mobile phone, while in the hospital room with Mr Robinson, about the manipulation of his flight records. Mr Gullaci said Mr Wright can be heard, in one section of the recording, asking someone 'we don't even need to fill a trip sheet out for that do we?'. Mr Robinson said trip sheets had not been used at Helibrook for years and he had not completed one for at least 12 months prior to the crash. 'There was a small period, from memory, with the previous chief pilot, where he showed us how to use them but it wasn't common practice to fill them out,' he said. When Mr Gullaci on Wednesday presented Mr Robinson with three trip sheets he had purportedly filled out in February 2022, Mr Robinson denied it was his handwriting. 'Did you fill that in?' Mr Gullaci asked. 'No I did not,' Mr Robinson said. 'That's fabricated. I did not do that,' he said. Earlier on Wednesday the court heard Mr Wright was not on the egg-collecting mission the day of the crash 'because he was an anti-vaxxer' so could not enter Arnhem Land where strict COVID restrictions were in place. 'It was just common knowledge that he wasn't vaccinated, so he couldn't do any work in Arnhem Land,' he said. 'Everyone knew that Matt was an anti-vaxxer so he could only fly in places where there weren't restrictions.' Despite this, Mr Wright flew to the remote crash site after learning of the accident. Mr Robinson said there were also restrictions on who could visit him in hospital and that visitors 'had to have a valid COVID certificate'. The trial before acting Justice Alan Blow continues.
West Australian
5 days ago
- West Australian
Matt Wright: Chopper pilot denies ‘raging cocaine junkie' claim in trial of ‘idolised' Croc Wrangler boss
The pilot who was flying Outback Wrangler Matt Wright's chopper when it fatally crashed has revealed why he made the split-second decision to release Netflix star Chris Wilson, who was slinging beneath the aircraft, as the helicopter fell from the sky. Sebastian Robinson – who worked for Mr Wright at the time of the crash – also says he had 'idolised' his high-profile boss and broke aviation rules to please him. On Tuesday, Mr Robinson began giving evidence via video-link at the celebrity croc-wrangler's criminal trial in the Northern Territory Supreme Court. The 32-year-old suffered serious injuries, including 'a complete sever of my spinal cord' when the helicopter he was flying crashed on February 28, 2022. The accident, during a crocodile egg collecting mission at West Arnhem Land, also killed his friend Chris Wilson, who was slinging beneath the aircraft. The aircraft – a Robinson R44, registered VH-IDW – was owned and operated by Mr Wright's since-liquidated company Helibrook. Mr Wright is on trial in Darwin after being charged with three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the investigation into the fatal crash. The charges relate to allegedly lying to police, pressuring a witness (Mr Robinson) and destroying evidence. The 45-year-old Top End tourism operator has pleaded not guilty to all charges. On Tuesday the court heard that in addition to being a pilot, Mr Robinson has also worked as an egg collector – the person slung beneath the chopper in a harness attached to a 100 foot line – on 'hundreds' of missions over a number of years. He said crocodile egg collecting, conducted during the NT's wet season, was dangerous and risky work which he knew could get him killed. 'Obviously because you're going into a hostile environment where a crocodile is willing to protect her eggs. Obviously going underneath an aircraft, there's terrain, weather,' he said. As a pilot, he said the egg collector's safety was paramount 'because they're the ones that are in the most danger'. He said he would try to carry the egg collector on the sling as close to the ground as possible but it was 'terrain dependent' and the sling person would often be lifted higher than 15 feet due to obstacles. 'You'd want to, you know, keep someone – without any terrain, if it's open – as low as you can, maybe between 10 and 20 feet,' he said. 'Sometimes crocodiles nest in thick, tall vegetation with tall trees and in a swamp, so you have to sling the person to clear the trees to get into the location where the nest would be. 'The pilot is 100 feet above the person in the harness.' The jury heard that an investigation into the crash found that Wilson fatally fell from a height of about 25m. Mr Robinson accepts that, while he has no memory of it, he must have intentionally disconnected Wilson from the chopper as it crashed. Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC asked Mr Robinson what he was trained to do if 'the helicopter got into some sort of trouble'. 'There's a million different situations but … I know in my heart you'd try to get the person in the harness to the safest place that you could possibly get them before releasing them,' Mr Robinson said. He said 'in an ideal world' you would place the egg collector on the ground before releasing them from the cargo hooks but that it would depend on the type of emergency occurring and would not always be possible. The Helibrook Operations Manual contained procedures for crocodile egg collecting. Under 'Emergency Procedures' it said that in the case of a partial engine failure 'the pilot in command shall attempt to place the sling person on the nearest safe area and release the strops from the aircraft and the aircraft shall proceed to land at the nearest suitable area'. In the case of a complete engine failure 'the pilot in command shall release the sling person as close to the ground as practicable and attempt the cushioning onto the ground forward of the sling person and clear', the company's operating manual said. Mr Robinson said keeping an egg collector attached to the aircraft in the case of a complete engine failure 'would be catastrophic'. 'More than likely they're going to hit the ground even harder and the sling could wrap around whatever vegetation there is and then dynamically roll the helicopter over into the ground or on top of the person being slung,' he said. 'You're going to land straight on top - you're going straight down on top of them.' Mr Gullaci asked Mr Robinson what would have happened if he had not released Wilson from the aircraft on the day of the crash. 'He would have got – he would have got ragdolled through the vegetation,' he said. 'It would have been severely worse than what happened.' The court heard that Mr Robinson left school after Year 10 and started his Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Licence apprenticeship with North Australian Helicopters, owned by cattle baron and reality television star Milton Jones, when he was 15 or 16 years old. After about five years, he became a qualified Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer before getting his pilot's license. At the time of the accident Mr Robinson was an experienced pilot and qualified to fly various helicopters, including the R22, R44, R66, B206 Jet Ranger and B206 Long Ranger. He said he had never run of fuel or been involved in a helicopter crash prior to this fatal accident in VH-IDW. For about two and half years prior to the February 2022 crash, Mr Robinson had held the position of Head of Airworthiness and Aircraft Maintenance Control (HAAMC) at Mr Wright's company Helibrook. The HAAMC is responsible for air worthiness and maintenance of an aircraft and for scheduling maintenance. Mr Robinson said that was what the HAAMC position 'was meant to be … if the rules were followed'. 'Matt controlled all aspects of his aircraft regarding maintenance scheduling,' he said. 'I was never paid to fill the role; it was just a name put forward to CASA (the Civil Aviation Safety Authority) so Helibrook could operate. 'I never received any remuneration for the HAAMC position.' In the six months leading up to the fatal crash, most of Mr Robinson's work for Mr Wright was flying his choppers on crocodile egg collecting missions. 'I'd only generally fly the aircraft that was involved in the accident, IDW,' he said. Mr Gullaci asked the witness if, during the time he worked for Mr Wright, there had been occasions when the Hobbs meter in Helibrook's helicopters were disconnected, to which he replied 'yes'. 'Similarly, was there a practice at Helibrook, when you flew Mr Wright's helicopters, of not recording all your flight hours in maintenance releases for the relevant helicopter?' the prosecutor asked. Mr Robinson replied 'yes'. The pilot said it was 'very common' for the Hobbs meter to be disconnected and not to record all flight hours in the aircraft's MR. He said Mr Wright would direct him to 'pop the clock for this trip', as in disconnect the Hobbs meter, and his boss benefited from it. 'Because he owned the aircraft and obviously, you're doing more hours and you're not recording them, you get, you know, you make the extra money and it prolongs maintenance intervals between having to spend money,' he said. Mr Robinson said he had become aware of, learnt to and performed disconnecting the Hobbs meter and not recording flight hours while working for other aviation businesses before commencing working for Mr Wright, and that the practise was widespread. He also 'sometimes' disconnected the Hobbs metre and under-recorded flight hours in his own aircraft but 'only while working under Helibrook'. Mr Robinson said pilots who worked for Mr Wright would always follow his orders in relation to disconnecting the hour meter and not recording of flight hours. 'Absolutely. Everyone looked at Matt has an idol and, you know, if he said, 'jump', they'd say, 'how high?',' he said. 'He's a major public figure. Everyone wanted to be around him, work for him and, you know, everyone bent over backwards to try and be a part of what he was doing.' Mr Robinson agreed with Mr Gullaci that Mr Wright had 'an aura about him' but when asked what sort of 'presence' he had, replied: 'I guess it depends on what mood he was in'. 'I wouldn't say (I was) intimidated but, you know, we were young men,' he said. 'You know, we looked up to him and you know, we just wanted to do our best to make ourselves look good in front of him and do whatever he said.' Mr Robinson said defects in Mr Wright's helicopters 'were never recorded as far as I know'. When asked who at Helibrook made the decision not to record defects in the aircraft's MR, Mr Robinson said 'it was just knowing that you don't'. 'You just ring the engineer,' he said. In the lead-up to the crash, Mr Robinson said he was planning to leave Helibrook so had applied to CASA for his own Air Operator's Certificate. 'I was trying to get away,' he said. 'I obtained my AOC approximately two weeks before the accident.' The court has previously heard that Mr Wright visited Mr Robinson twice, in the days after the crash, while he was in a Brisbane hospital, in an alleged attempt to have the injured pilot falsify flight records. The court heard that prior to Mr Wright's hospital visits on March 11 and March 13 in 2022, doctors had delivered Mr Robinson a dire prognosis. 'I was in pretty bad shape and I, you know, they told me that I had a severe spinal injury and that I may never walk again,' he said. 'But, you know, I did my best to try and not believe it and, you know, obviously dealing with a brain injury and everything, I just - it was a very hard time - time for me, yep.' Mr Gullaci asked Mr Robinson to explain the injuries he had sustained to the jury. 'Yeah, I can, but it obviously makes me a little bit upset, he said. 'Fractured L1, T12, T11, T10 vertebrae resulting in a complete sever of my spinal cord, rendering me a paraplegic. 'I fractured 12 ribs, puncturing both lungs and causing severe internal bleeding. I fractured C6 and C7 vertebrae in my neck. 'I fractured my left elbow, both my ankles and I suffered a traumatic brain injury from, a TBI, from impact.' He has noticed a marked difference in his cognitive abilities as well as his memory. 'I can't, you know, when I get put under pressure, what I think I can't (actually) say, like I can't put it into words what I'm trying to, what I'm thinking in my brain to what I'm trying to say,' he said. 'I get frustrated very easily. 'I have sleep issues and yeah, mood swings. 'Definitely I'm a different person compared to what I was pre-accident.' Mr Robinson, who has undergone about 20 surgeries since the crash, said he only has fragments of memory from the day of the crash. 'I don't have a continual memory, I've just got glimpses of the morning and … like a picture in my head of what I thought at Mount Borradaile,' he said. 'I remember like sort of driving to (Helibrook's Noonamah) hangar, like it's all really a bit fuzzy and then getting … getting some things ready. 'I remember sitting in the helicopter with Willow and then some sort of social media posts arose that he was looking at on Facebook and then we were having a bit of a laugh about it and then ... my memory sort of cuts off from there.' He said his memory of what happened at the Mount Borradaile fuel drum site – enroute to the King River staging area – is 'very fuzzy'. 'I'm pretty sure we were the first helicopter to arrive,' he said. 'The airstrip has tall trees either side and I just have a glimpse of a memory of going along the airstrip, taking off and just blurry seeing trees out the side.' When asked if he recalls VH-IDW being refuelled at Mount Borradaile, Mr Robinson said he recalls seeing a fuel drum and a fuel pump. 'I don't have an actual recollection of the helicopter getting fuelled, but one of my vivid memories was seeing a fuel pump (being) walked over from another, like coming over towards us from another helicopter,' he said. 'That's a mechanical hand pump that folds up under the seat that you use to refill a helicopter from a 44-gallon drum.' Mr Robinson said he does not recall the low fuel warning light – which indicates 18L of fuel remaining – ever illuminating while he has been flying. He said if the low-fuel light illuminated, 'you'd land immediately'. 'Because you don't want to run out of fuel while you're in the air,' he said. Mr Robinson said he had flown from Helibrook's Noonamah hangar to King River about 40 times and was very familiar with the area. The court heard Wilson had snapped a photo at 7.43am on the morning of the crash, while flying VH-IDW between Noonamah and Mount Borradaile, which captured the chopper's fuel gauge in the background. The fuel gauge photo showed that the two interconnected fuel tanks were at least three-quarters full at that time. Mr Robinson said the chopper, based on photo evidence, had enough fuel in the tanks to fly to King River and some of the way back to Darwin. After the crash, when Mr Robinson woke up in a Brisbane hospital and was told Wilson was dead, he knew there would be an investigation and feared he would be blamed. 'I was in a pretty bad shape, but yes, I guess the thought definitely passed through my mind,' he said. In the months that followed, he was interviewed by investigators from the NT Police, the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau and CASA. He admits lying to investigators, in his first few interviews, about under recording flight hours and disconnecting the Hobbs meter. 'Yes, obviously I was panicking and you know,' he said. 'I guess it was pure panic and yes, I was scared … of potential repercussions. 'I don't know, I guess potentially being blamed and - and, you know, my pilot's licence being affected.' The court heard that in later interviews, Mr Robinson confessed to breaking the rules in relation to the helicopter's Hobbs meter and the maintenance releases. On Monday, Mr Wright's defence barrister David Edwardson suggested to witness Jock Purcell that Mr Robinson was a 'party animal' and regular cocaine user prior to the crash. On Tuesday Mr Robinson admitted to occasional drug use but denied ever flying while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He said he had used cocaine 'maybe a couple of times a year' in the five years prior to the accident. 'Can you remember if you used cocaine ... in the day or days before the crash?' Mr Gullaci asked. 'I have no recollection of the weeks prior,' Mr Robinson replied. 'Were you a raging cocaine junkie, Mr Robinson?' the prosecutor pushed. 'Not at all,' he replied. Mr Robinson is continuing to give evidence before Acting Justice Alan Blow on Wednesday.
Perth Now
5 days ago
- Perth Now
Why Wrangler pilot released Netflix star as chopper crashed
The pilot who was flying Outback Wrangler Matt Wright's chopper when it fatally crashed has revealed why he made the split-second decision to release Netflix star Chris Wilson, who was slinging beneath the aircraft, as the helicopter fell from the sky. Sebastian Robinson – who worked for Mr Wright at the time of the crash – also says he had 'idolised' his high-profile boss and broke aviation rules to please him. On Tuesday, Mr Robinson began giving evidence via video-link at the celebrity croc-wrangler's criminal trial in the Northern Territory Supreme Court. The 32-year-old suffered serious injuries, including 'a complete sever of my spinal cord' when the helicopter he was flying crashed on February 28, 2022. The accident, during a crocodile egg collecting mission at West Arnhem Land, also killed his friend Chris Wilson, who was slinging beneath the aircraft. The aircraft – a Robinson R44, registered VH-IDW – was owned and operated by Mr Wright's since-liquidated company Helibrook. Mr Wright is on trial in Darwin after being charged with three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the investigation into the fatal crash. The charges relate to allegedly lying to police, pressuring a witness (Mr Robinson) and destroying evidence. The 45-year-old Top End tourism operator has pleaded not guilty to all charges. On Tuesday the court heard that in addition to being a pilot, Mr Robinson has also worked as an egg collector – the person slung beneath the chopper in a harness attached to a 100 foot line – on 'hundreds' of missions over a number of years. The helicopter crash killed Chris "Willow" Wilson and permanently injured pilot Sebastian Robinson. Credit: AAP He said crocodile egg collecting, conducted during the NT's wet season, was dangerous and risky work which he knew could get him killed. 'Obviously because you're going into a hostile environment where a crocodile is willing to protect her eggs. Obviously going underneath an aircraft, there's terrain, weather,' he said. As a pilot, he said the egg collector's safety was paramount 'because they're the ones that are in the most danger'. He said he would try to carry the egg collector on the sling as close to the ground as possible but it was 'terrain dependent' and the sling person would often be lifted higher than 15 feet due to obstacles. 'You'd want to, you know, keep someone – without any terrain, if it's open – as low as you can, maybe between 10 and 20 feet,' he said. 'Sometimes crocodiles nest in thick, tall vegetation with tall trees and in a swamp, so you have to sling the person to clear the trees to get into the location where the nest would be. 'The pilot is 100 feet above the person in the harness.' The jury heard that an investigation into the crash found that Wilson fatally fell from a height of about 25m. Mr Robinson accepts that, while he has no memory of it, he must have intentionally disconnected Wilson from the chopper as it crashed. Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC asked Mr Robinson what he was trained to do if 'the helicopter got into some sort of trouble'. 'There's a million different situations but … I know in my heart you'd try to get the person in the harness to the safest place that you could possibly get them before releasing them,' Mr Robinson said. He said 'in an ideal world' you would place the egg collector on the ground before releasing them from the cargo hooks but that it would depend on the type of emergency occurring and would not always be possible. The Helibrook Operations Manual contained procedures for crocodile egg collecting. Under 'Emergency Procedures' it said that in the case of a partial engine failure 'the pilot in command shall attempt to place the sling person on the nearest safe area and release the strops from the aircraft and the aircraft shall proceed to land at the nearest suitable area'. In the case of a complete engine failure 'the pilot in command shall release the sling person as close to the ground as practicable and attempt the cushioning onto the ground forward of the sling person and clear', the company's operating manual said. Mr Robinson said keeping an egg collector attached to the aircraft in the case of a complete engine failure 'would be catastrophic'. 'More than likely they're going to hit the ground even harder and the sling could wrap around whatever vegetation there is and then dynamically roll the helicopter over into the ground or on top of the person being slung,' he said. 'You're going to land straight on top - you're going straight down on top of them.' Mr Gullaci asked Mr Robinson what would have happened if he had not released Wilson from the aircraft on the day of the crash. 'He would have got – he would have got ragdolled through the vegetation,' he said. 'It would have been severely worse than what happened.' The court heard that Mr Robinson left school after Year 10 and started his Aircraft Maintenance Engineering Licence apprenticeship with North Australian Helicopters, owned by cattle baron and reality television star Milton Jones, when he was 15 or 16 years old. After about five years, he became a qualified Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer before getting his pilot's license. At the time of the accident Mr Robinson was an experienced pilot and qualified to fly various helicopters, including the R22, R44, R66, B206 Jet Ranger and B206 Long Ranger. He said he had never run of fuel or been involved in a helicopter crash prior to this fatal accident in VH-IDW. For about two and half years prior to the February 2022 crash, Mr Robinson had held the position of Head of Airworthiness and Aircraft Maintenance Control (HAAMC) at Mr Wright's company Helibrook. The HAAMC is responsible for air worthiness and maintenance of an aircraft and for scheduling maintenance. Mr Robinson said that was what the HAAMC position 'was meant to be … if the rules were followed'. 'Matt controlled all aspects of his aircraft regarding maintenance scheduling,' he said. 'I was never paid to fill the role; it was just a name put forward to CASA (the Civil Aviation Safety Authority) so Helibrook could operate. 'I never received any remuneration for the HAAMC position.' In the six months leading up to the fatal crash, most of Mr Robinson's work for Mr Wright was flying his choppers on crocodile egg collecting missions. 'I'd only generally fly the aircraft that was involved in the accident, IDW,' he said. Mr Gullaci asked the witness if, during the time he worked for Mr Wright, there had been occasions when the Hobbs meter in Helibrook's helicopters were disconnected, to which he replied 'yes'. 'Similarly, was there a practice at Helibrook, when you flew Mr Wright's helicopters, of not recording all your flight hours in maintenance releases for the relevant helicopter?' the prosecutor asked. Mr Robinson replied 'yes'. Pilot Sebastian Robinson, who was critically injured in the chopper crash that killed Netflix star Chris Wilson, is expected to give evidence at Outback Wrangler Matt Wright's criminal trial in Darwin. Credit: / Supplied The pilot said it was 'very common' for the Hobbs meter to be disconnected and not to record all flight hours in the aircraft's MR. He said Mr Wright would direct him to 'pop the clock for this trip', as in disconnect the Hobbs meter, and his boss benefited from it. 'Because he owned the aircraft and obviously, you're doing more hours and you're not recording them, you get, you know, you make the extra money and it prolongs maintenance intervals between having to spend money,' he said. Mr Robinson said he had become aware of, learnt to and performed disconnecting the Hobbs meter and not recording flight hours while working for other aviation businesses before commencing working for Mr Wright, and that the practise was widespread. He also 'sometimes' disconnected the Hobbs metre and under-recorded flight hours in his own aircraft but 'only while working under Helibrook'. Mr Robinson said pilots who worked for Mr Wright would always follow his orders in relation to disconnecting the hour meter and not recording of flight hours. 'Absolutely. Everyone looked at Matt has an idol and, you know, if he said, 'jump', they'd say, 'how high?',' he said. 'He's a major public figure. Everyone wanted to be around him, work for him and, you know, everyone bent over backwards to try and be a part of what he was doing.' Mr Robinson agreed with Mr Gullaci that Mr Wright had 'an aura about him' but when asked what sort of 'presence' he had, replied: 'I guess it depends on what mood he was in'. 'I wouldn't say (I was) intimidated but, you know, we were young men,' he said. 'You know, we looked up to him and you know, we just wanted to do our best to make ourselves look good in front of him and do whatever he said.' Mr Robinson said defects in Mr Wright's helicopters 'were never recorded as far as I know'. When asked who at Helibrook made the decision not to record defects in the aircraft's MR, Mr Robinson said 'it was just knowing that you don't'. 'You just ring the engineer,' he said. In the lead-up to the crash, Mr Robinson said he was planning to leave Helibrook so had applied to CASA for his own Air Operator's Certificate. 'I was trying to get away,' he said. 'I obtained my AOC approximately two weeks before the accident.' The court has previously heard that Mr Wright visited Mr Robinson twice, in the days after the crash, while he was in a Brisbane hospital, in an alleged attempt to have the injured pilot falsify flight records. The court heard that prior to Mr Wright's hospital visits on March 11 and March 13 in 2022, doctors had delivered Mr Robinson a dire prognosis. 'I was in pretty bad shape and I, you know, they told me that I had a severe spinal injury and that I may never walk again,' he said. 'But, you know, I did my best to try and not believe it and, you know, obviously dealing with a brain injury and everything, I just - it was a very hard time - time for me, yep.' Mr Gullaci asked Mr Robinson to explain the injuries he had sustained to the jury. 'Yeah, I can, but it obviously makes me a little bit upset, he said. 'Fractured L1, T12, T11, T10 vertebrae resulting in a complete sever of my spinal cord, rendering me a paraplegic. 'I fractured 12 ribs, puncturing both lungs and causing severe internal bleeding. I fractured C6 and C7 vertebrae in my neck. 'I fractured my left elbow, both my ankles and I suffered a traumatic brain injury from, a TBI, from impact.' He has noticed a marked difference in his cognitive abilities as well as his memory. 'I can't, you know, when I get put under pressure, what I think I can't (actually) say, like I can't put it into words what I'm trying to, what I'm thinking in my brain to what I'm trying to say,' he said. 'I get frustrated very easily. 'I have sleep issues and yeah, mood swings. 'Definitely I'm a different person compared to what I was pre-accident.' Mr Robinson, who has undergone about 20 surgeries since the crash, said he only has fragments of memory from the day of the crash. 'I don't have a continual memory, I've just got glimpses of the morning and … like a picture in my head of what I thought at Mount Borradaile,' he said. 'I remember like sort of driving to (Helibrook's Noonamah) hangar, like it's all really a bit fuzzy and then getting … getting some things ready. 'I remember sitting in the helicopter with Willow and then some sort of social media posts arose that he was looking at on Facebook and then we were having a bit of a laugh about it and then ... my memory sort of cuts off from there.' He said his memory of what happened at the Mount Borradaile fuel drum site – enroute to the King River staging area – is 'very fuzzy'. 'I'm pretty sure we were the first helicopter to arrive,' he said. 'The airstrip has tall trees either side and I just have a glimpse of a memory of going along the airstrip, taking off and just blurry seeing trees out the side.' When asked if he recalls VH-IDW being refuelled at Mount Borradaile, Mr Robinson said he recalls seeing a fuel drum and a fuel pump. 'I don't have an actual recollection of the helicopter getting fuelled, but one of my vivid memories was seeing a fuel pump (being) walked over from another, like coming over towards us from another helicopter,' he said. 'That's a mechanical hand pump that folds up under the seat that you use to refill a helicopter from a 44-gallon drum.' Mr Robinson said he does not recall the low fuel warning light – which indicates 18L of fuel remaining – ever illuminating while he has been flying. He said if the low-fuel light illuminated, 'you'd land immediately'. 'Because you don't want to run out of fuel while you're in the air,' he said. Mr Robinson said he had flown from Helibrook's Noonamah hangar to King River about 40 times and was very familiar with the area. The court heard Wilson had snapped a photo at 7.43am on the morning of the crash, while flying VH-IDW between Noonamah and Mount Borradaile, which captured the chopper's fuel gauge in the background. The fuel gauge photo showed that the two interconnected fuel tanks were at least three-quarters full at that time. Mr Robinson said the chopper, based on photo evidence, had enough fuel in the tanks to fly to King River and some of the way back to Darwin. After the crash, when Mr Robinson woke up in a Brisbane hospital and was told Wilson was dead, he knew there would be an investigation and feared he would be blamed. 'I was in a pretty bad shape, but yes, I guess the thought definitely passed through my mind,' he said. In the months that followed, he was interviewed by investigators from the NT Police, the Australian Transport and Safety Bureau and CASA. He admits lying to investigators, in his first few interviews, about under recording flight hours and disconnecting the Hobbs meter. 'Yes, obviously I was panicking and you know,' he said. 'I guess it was pure panic and yes, I was scared … of potential repercussions. 'I don't know, I guess potentially being blamed and - and, you know, my pilot's licence being affected.' The court heard that in later interviews, Mr Robinson confessed to breaking the rules in relation to the helicopter's Hobbs meter and the maintenance releases. On Monday, Mr Wright's defence barrister David Edwardson suggested to witness Jock Purcell that Mr Robinson was a 'party animal' and regular cocaine user prior to the crash. On Tuesday Mr Robinson admitted to occasional drug use but denied ever flying while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. He said he had used cocaine 'maybe a couple of times a year' in the five years prior to the accident. 'Can you remember if you used cocaine ... in the day or days before the crash?' Mr Gullaci asked. 'I have no recollection of the weeks prior,' Mr Robinson replied. 'Were you a raging cocaine junkie, Mr Robinson?' the prosecutor pushed. 'Not at all,' he replied. Mr Robinson is continuing to give evidence before Acting Justice Alan Blow on Wednesday.
Perth Now
08-08-2025
- Perth Now
Major claims on Netflix star's chopper crash
A reality television star and pilot allegedly fudged helicopter flight logs before his mate died in a fatal crash and suggested 'torching' important documents in the aftermath. Those were just some of the explosive claims made in the Northern Territory Supreme Court during the first week of the trial against Outback Wrangler Matt Wright. Mr Wright, 45, is accused of engaging in a 'pattern' of failing to accurately record flight times in the Robinson-R-44 that crashed three years ago, killing his friend and co-star Chris 'Willow' Wilson. The 34-year-old father was dangling from a sling attached to the chopper during a dangerous crocodile egg collecting mission on February 28, 2022. The helicopter crashed into a paperbark swamp along the King River in Arnhem Land, killing Mr Wilson and critically injuring 28-year-old pilot Seb Robinson. Mr Robinson is now a paraplegic and in a wheelchair. Mr Wright has pleaded not guilty to three allegations of attempting to pervert the course of justice following the crash. Matt Wright, pictured with his wife Kaia and lawyer David Edwardson, has pleaded not guilty. NewsWire / Zizi Averill Credit: News Corp Australia In his opening address this week, prosecutor Jason Gullaci told the court the six-man operation was 'risky and dangerous work'. Wild Harvest NT owner Mick Burns — commonly known as the 'crocodile king' — had a permit for egg collection and subcontracted Mr Wright's company Helibook. Mr Gullaci alleged Mr Wright had a 'pattern' of manipulating flight records. He said the Netflix and Apple TV star would have known about the maintenance requirements, including a service every 50 to 100 hours of flight and a major overhaul at 2200 hours. He said these 'potential end of life' overhauls could cost up to $460,000. Mr Gullaci alleged that in a bugged conversation with his wife Kaia in September 2022, Mr Wright suggested he knew he had overflown the maintenance hours 'by a couple hundred (hours), maybe 10 per cent'. 'I will be guilty of not keeping my f****** paperwork up to speed,' Mr Wright allegedly said. Mr Wright allegedly repeatedly disconnected the chopper's Hobbs Meter, which Mr Gullaci compared to the odometer of a car. While it was not alleged Mr Wright was responsible for the deadly crash, Mr Gullaci said his fear that he would be blamed did motivate his actions. 'Mr Wright was concerned after the crash that this failure would be revealed,' Mr Gullaci said. 'And if it was uncovered that there had been systemic under-reporting of the recorded hours, that it could be used as a way to blame him for the accident.' Outback Wrangler Matt Wright with his wife Kaia Wright. NewsWire / Zizi Averill Credit: News Corp Australia Mr Burns testified the collectors, who dangled from helicopters, were paid $1000 per day and the pilots were paid by their respective companies. He told the jury he paid for their 'green' fuel as 'we thought it was safer as it allows the engine to run cooler'. The petrol and a refuelling stop at Mt Borradaile will be a source of contention throughout the trial. Mr Burns began to tear up as he recalled arriving at the horrific crash site. Off-duty police officer Neil Mellon was with Mr Burns at the site and also became emotional as he told the jury how he put his friend in a body bag. 'I've done it so many times, I didn't think these guys needed to do that,' he said. Wild Harvest NT director Mick Burns had a permit for the egg collection. NewsWire / Zizi Averill Credit: News Corp Australia Mr Mellon said he disconnected Mr Wilson's harness, removed a handgun from his hip, and removed his mobile phone — handing it to Michael Burbidge, who was flying another helicopter and had been the first to arrive at the scene. He told the court Mr Burbidge told him Mr Wilson's wife Dani 'doesn't need to see what's on that' and later admitted the phone was 'in the ocean'. Mr Mellon agreed Mr Wright and Mr Burbidge were 'in and around' the crashed chopper's cockpit, but Mr Burns said he did not recall. In a bugged conversation months later, the court heard Mr Wright had allegedly said: 'He had run out of fuel. I'll just say he was a s*** pilot.' The prosecutor alleged Mr Wright repeatedly tried to manipulate the helicopter's documents, including pressuring Mr Robinson to forge records and suggested to others the original maintenance release should be 'destroyed'. Mr Gullaci alleged the celebrity was recorded saying: 'Just torch it, I don't know where it is.' 'Now they are starting to put the pressure on everyone, you know, they will start squealing,' he allegedly said in September. Former NT Police Northern Watch Commander Neil Mellon testified during the trial about putting his friend in a body bag. NewsWire / Zizi Averill Credit: News Corp Australia On Friday, the court was played a covertly recorded phone call between Mr Wright and Mr Burbidge from August 9, 2022. Mr Burbidge allegedly said to Mr Wright: 'Who's got the logbooks for IDW? There's been s**t written in it.' Mr Burbidge then told Mr Wright an anonymous 'source' told him engineers had been writing notes in the logbook, saying the helicopter had been flown when the hours meter was disconnected. 'They've said the clock's been off … so you need to find out who's f****** said it so you know who to trust and not to trust,' he said. Chris Wilson's widow Dani Wilson outside court. NewsWire/Pema Tamang Pakhrin Credit: News Corp Australia Defence senior counsel David Edwardson said the charges against his client relied on statements made by Mr Robinson and his family whose 'credibility and reliability' was in question, as well as inaudible and unclear recordings. The jury heard the lengthy trial would likely focus on the trace levels of cocaine in Mr Robinson's blood. Mr Gullaci said expert evidence would be presented that indicated recreational use in the days before the crash. The trial before Justice Alan Blow will resume next week.
