Latest news with #helicopter crash
ABC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Matt Wright trial hears allegations of cocaine use and COVID-19 breaches
An "anti-vax" crocodile wrangler, a helicopter pilot's cocaine use and the patchy memory of witnesses struggling to recall key details of a fatal crash scene. These were just snippets from an explosive week of evidence heard by a jury in the high-profile Northern Territory Supreme Court trial against the Outback Wrangler Matt Wright. The star of Netflix reality adventure show Wild Croc Territory has been charged with three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice, to which he's pleaded not guilty. The prosecution has alleged Mr Wright tried to obstruct and interfere with investigations into a helicopter crash which killed his co-star Chris 'Willow' Wilson on February 28, 2022. Mr Wright's alleged to have done so with the motive of covering up a culture at his helicopter business, Helibrook, of systemically under-reporting helicopter flying hours — which the prosecution alleges was to avoid costly maintenance requirements for his fleet of choppers. Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC has alleged that after the crash Mr Wright was concerned that his "failure to record hours" would be revealed and "he could be blamed for the crash". Mr Wright is not alleged to have been at fault over the crash. The sole survivor of the crash, pilot Sebastian Robinson, took to the stand this week as a key witness in the prosecution's case, in which he branded Mr Wright an "anti-vaxxer" who allegedly asked him to alter flight records just 11 days after the crash which nearly killed him. Now paraplegic and forced to take breaks from giving evidence every 30 minutes, Mr Robinson told the jury of the life-altering injuries he'd been left with from the crash, from losing the use of his legs to a traumatic brain injury he continues to grapple with. He alleged that in March 2022, Mr Wright visited his Brisbane hospital room, with documents in his hand, and asked him to "manipulate hours on my aircraft". "I was obviously laying in a hospital bed," he said. "I was still in a pretty bad way and very confused, and I knew something wasn't right. "And I said, 'I'd think about it.'" While at his bedside, Mr Robinson also alleged Mr Wright deleted items from his phone, including notes about flying hours – an allegation which Mr Wright's barrister David Edwardson KC described as "an absolute falsehood". "Mr Robinson I suggest that, brain injury or not, Mr Wright never touched your phone and never deleted a single message from it," he said. In visiting the hospital, Mr Robinson also alleged that the Outback Wrangler had broken COVID-19 restrictions, due to him being unvaccinated. 'He was an anti-vaxxer," Mr Robinson said. '[To visit the hospital] you had to have a valid COVID certificate … a certificate of vaccination." As the injured former pilot gave evidence via video link to a packed courtroom, Mr Edwardson turned the microscope onto his past illegal drug use. The barrister questioned Mr Robinson on the extent of his past cocaine use, presenting extracted text messages sent and received by the chopper pilot. In one such message from 2019, Mr Edwardson said the pilot wrote: "Footy players in town and want bags." In another, a text conversation was laid bare with a "distant friend" named Morto: Sebastian Robinson: "Might have to come down Monday, crook as a dog." Morto: "Snorting too much coke out of Matty's arse, bro"? In response, Mr Edwardson said "you certainly know that Matt Wright has nothing to do with cocaine, don't you?" "Well, Morto's saying, 'snorting too much coke out of Matt's arse,'" he said. "Are you telling me you've been snorting coke out of Matt's arse?" Mr Edwardson asked. Mr Robinson was also asked whether he was ever a drug dealer, which he denied. "I've used cocaine before … I used to use it, you know, recreationally, maybe a couple of times a year," the witness said. In blood test results after the fatal crash, the court heard Mr Robinson had traces of cocaine in his system, which the prosecution said in its opening statement was "metabolised" and not to blame for the incident. Mr Robinson was also quizzed as to whether he had ever supplied alcohol to liquor-restricted remote Aboriginal communities in Arnhem Land, to which replied "to sell, no I did not". The court was shown videos of Mr Robinson appearing to share alcohol with an Aboriginal ranger in Arnhem Land, which the pilot identified as a friend from Maningrida. Earlier in the week, the courtroom hosted a number of other witnesses, from fellow helicopter pilots to a crocodile egg industry manager and a CareFlight nurse. Among those was Jock Purcell, one of the crew involved in the egg collecting mission the day Mr Robinson's chopper crashed in a remote paperbark swamp. Mr Purcell, who was an employee of Mr Wright and also featured in Wild Croc Territory, often struggled to recall key details from the fatal crash site in 2022. At one stage that afternoon, Mr Gullaci questioned whether Mr Purcell was being more forthcoming to questioning from Mr Wright's defence barrister than to the prosecution: "Has your memory improved during the course of the day in giving evidence?" The surviving pilot, Mr Robinson, has also repeatedly said in evidence that he can't remember a lot from the time surrounding the fatal crash. With multiple witnesses giving evidence through the trial, often with differing perspectives of the same scene, the jury was evidently struggling. In a note to Acting Justice Alan Blow, the jury asked whether they could have some clarity to help them navigate the "discrepancies" between witness accounts. "Yes, different people have said different things," Judge Alan Blow said in response. A challenging task ahead for the jury as the trial against the Outback Wrangler gets ever more complex, with evidence set to continue in the NT Supreme Court next week.
Yahoo
30-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
NTSB finds Army chopper in fatal midair crash was above altitude limit
Investigators probing the January midair collision of a passenger plane and an Army helicopter over Washington that killed 67 people found the chopper was flying higher than it should have been and the altitude readings were inaccurate. The details came out of the first day of National Transportation Safety Board hearings in Washington, where investigators aim to uncover insights into what caused the crash between the American Airlines plane from Wichita, Kansas, and the Black Hawk helicopter over Ronald Reagan National Airport. The board opened the three days of hearings by showing an animation and playing audio and video from the night of the collision, as well as questioning witnesses and investigators about how the Federal Aviation Administration and the Army may have contributed to nation's deadliest plane crash since November 2001. It's likely too early for the board to identify what caused the crash. The January incident was the first in a string of crashes and near misses this year that have alarmed officials and the traveling public, despite statistics that still show flying remains the safest form of transportation. Animation, altimeter discrepancy The hearing opened Wednesday with a video animation showing where the helicopter and airliner were leading up to the collision. It showed how the helicopter flew above the 200 feet (61 meters) altitude limit on the helicopter route along the Potomac River before colliding with the plane. Investigators said Wednesday the flight data recorder showed the helicopter was actually 80 feet to 100 feet (24 to 30 meters) higher than the barometric altimeter the pilots relied upon showed they were flying. So the NTSB conducted tests on three other helicopters from the same unit in a flight over the same area and found similar discrepancies in their altimeters. Dan Cooper with Sikorsky helicopters said that when the Black Hawk helicopter involved in the crash was designed in the 1970s, it used a style of altimeter that was common at the time. Newer helicopters have air data computers that didn't exist back then that help provide more accurate altitude readings. Chief Warrant Officer Kylene Lewis told the board that she wouldn't find an 80 to 100 foot discrepancy between the different altimeters on a helicopter alarming because at lower altitudes she would be relying more on the radar altimeter than the barometric altimeter. Below 500 feet (152 meters), Lewis said she would be checking both instruments and cross referencing them. DC helicopter route permanently closed after fatal Black Hawk crash She said as long as an altimeter registers an altitude within 70 feet of the published altitude before takeoff the altimeter is considered accurate under the checklists. Army officials said a discrepancy of 70 to 100 feet (21 to 30 meters) between the Black Hawk's altimeters is within the acceptable range because pilots are expected to maintain their altitude plus or minus 100 feet. The greater concern is that the FAA approved routes around Reagan airport that included such small separation distances between helicopters and planes when planes are landing. 'The fact that we have less than 500 foot separation is a concern for me,' the Army's Scott Rosengren said. But Rosengren said that 'if he was king for a day' he would immediately retire all the older Black Hawk models like the one involved in this crash and replace them with newer versions of the helicopters. Previously, NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy highlighted that the published helicopter routes around Washington D.C. would allow planes and helicopters to routinely come within 75 feet of each other during landing. Army officials said Wednesday that the flight manual for these older Black Hawks doesn't highlight the discrepancies in altimeters that has been documented previously, but typical flight separations are at least 500 feet (152 meters) around airports. Previously disclosed air traffic control audio had the helicopter pilot telling the controller twice that they saw the airplane and would avoid it. The animation ended with surveillance video showing the helicopter colliding with the plane in a fiery crash. Investigations have already shown the FAA failed to recognize a troubling history of 85 near misses around Reagan airport in the years before the collision, and that the Army's helicopters routinely flew around the nation's capitol with a key piece of locating equipment, known as ADS-B Out, turned off. Aviation attorney Bob Clifford, who is working to file one of the first lawsuits against the government next month, said he hopes NTSB will look beyond the immediate factors that caused this crash to highlight the bigger ongoing concerns in the crowded Washington airspace. Proposed changes Even though the final NTSB report won't be released until sometime next year, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz introduced legislation Tuesday to require all aircraft operators to use both forms of ADS-B, or Automatic Dependent Surveillance Broadcast, the technology to broadcast aircraft location data to other planes and air traffic controllers. Most aircraft today are equipped with ADS-B Out equipment but the airlines would have to add the more comprehensive ADS-B In technology to their planes. 'There cannot be a double standard in aviation safety,' Cruz said. 'We should not tolerate special exceptions for military training flights, operating in congested air space.' The legislation would revoke an exemption on ADS-B transmission requests for Department of Defense aircrafts. It also would require the FAA to evaluate helicopter routes near airports and require the Army Inspector General to review the Army's aviation safety practices. Homendy said her agency has been recommending that move for decades after several other crashes. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that while he'd like to discuss 'a few tweaks,' the legislation is 'the right approach.' He also suggested that the previous administration 'was asleep at the wheel' amid dozens of near-misses in the airspace around Washington's airspace. 'Fact-finding proceeding' Homendy said the hearings over the next few days will be a 'fact-finding proceeding.' The NTSB will also post thousands of pages of evidence from the crash investigation online. FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said that he expects 'we're going to have some very uncomfortable conversations over the next two and a half days' but that 'they need to be had in the clear light of day – and simply put the best interest of the traveling public ahead of any of our personal interests, perhaps.' The hearings in Washington involve NTSB board members, investigators and witnesses for organizations involved in the crash. Federal officials have also raised concerns over the nation's outdated and understaffed air traffic control system. During January's mid-air crash above Washington, one controller was handing both commercial airline and helicopter traffic at the busy airport. Associated Press writers Leah Askarinam, Ben Finley and Rio Yamat contributed to this story.
