Sea World Helicopters employee reveals she ‘blamed herself’ for giving fatal chopper flight the all-clear
A Sea World Helicopters employee has broken down in court revealing how she blamed herself for giving the fatal flight clearance to takeoff.
A young Sea World Helicopters employee has broken into tears and revealed how she “blamed herself” after the fatal helicopter collision that killed her “mentor”.
Grace Hickey was just 19 when she gave chief pilot Ash Jenkinson the all-clear to fly before the fatal flight that claimed his life.
Three passengers also died after two choppers collided midair on January 2, 2023 - British newlyweds Ron and Diane Hughes, and Sydney tourist Vanessa Tadros, whose 10-year-old son survived the tragedy.
On Tuesday, Ms Hickey told an inquest into the incident how she had helped load passengers onto the five-minute joy-flight which ended in tragedy just 23 seconds after takeoff.
She scanned the sky, sea, and land before giving Mr Jenkinson a thumbs up - but he had lingered at the helipad for some time before taking off.
“I did a lot of blaming myself for it, even though nothing that I could have done could have helped it,” she revealed in court.
Ms Hickey broke into tears as she was ushered from the room at the conclusion of her evidence.
She had remained composed throughout the bulk of proceedings, as she was questioned by counsel about her understanding of Sea World Helicopters’s procedures.
Ms Hickey described how she would always ensure passenger seatbelts were fitted tightly before takeoff.
“After the doors close, passengers can just do… I can’t control what happens to the seat belts afterwards,” she noted.
Ms Hickey had also been responsible for cleaning the helicopters on occasion, but said she “knew not to touch any of the buttons”.
“I had common sense, I’ll call it, not to interfere with any of that stuff,” she explained.
Ms Hickey also described to the court how Mr Jenkinson’s mood had been “normal” that day.
“He was fine… He wasn’t down in the dumps,” she said.
“It was just another day in the office.”
Ms Hickey said the only thing unusual was that Mr Jenkinson had eaten lunch with the other staff.
“Usually he would eat his lunch in his office,” she said.
“This day he was a bit more relaxed and he was more social with us.”
The inquest is expected to continue for the next two weeks, with 30 witnesses expected to give evidence.
Former Sea World Helicopters pilot Jesse Wacker was one of three primary pilots employed by the company at the time - the only one not involved in the collision.
Mr Wacker told the inquest on Tuesday afternoon that he had not received specific training on visibility differences when the company brought in a new type of helicopter, the EC130, in December 2022.
The damning 200-page report published by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) earlier this year had suggested “the EC130s were pushed in before Christmas....to use them as a marketing tool”.
The helicopters involved in the collision were both these new EC130s. The court heard a key difference between the EC130 and most helicopters is that the pilot would sit on the left side, instead of the right.
In his opening statement on Monday, counsel assisting Ian Harvey had noted that pilots transitioning to flying on a left hand position would need to “adapt to an altered field of view”.
“Different lines of sight must be understood with awareness of different cockpit vision obstructions,” he said.
Mr Wacker agreed it was a “different feeling” piloting from the left side - comparable to driving on the opposite side of the road.
One of the key issues under the microscope throughout the inquest is whether the pilots involved in the collision, Ash Jenkinson and Michael James, had received sufficient differences training.
The inquest heard Mr Wacker’s log book records suggested he had undertaken differences training in the EC130 helicopters - but he agreed on Tuesday that that training did not meet the standard set out in the relevant legislation.
Mr Wacker told the inquest that no one had been aware of one of the other key issues being considered - whether the antenna in the helicopter Mr Jenkinson had piloted on the day of his death had been faulty.
“No one was aware - not that I know of,” he said.
The ATSB report had found it was “almost certain” that a call made by Mr Jenkinson from the park pad before takeoff had not been successfully transmitted due to faults in the installation hardware of the radio.
Mr Wacker agreed he would not choose to fly a helicopter if he was aware there was an issue with the radio.
However, he said the pilots had continued to fly the other helicopter involved in the collision - piloted by Mr James - despite being made aware its transponder was not functioning properly.
Mr Jenkinson had been alerted to the issue on December 20, 2022, after he flew that helicopter into controlled airspace and air traffic controllers informed him he was “only showing up as a shadow,” the inquest heard.
Mr Wacker confirmed they had continued piloting that helicopter, purposefully avoiding controlled airspace after being made aware of the issue.
Mr Harvey had told the court in his opening that Mr Jenkinson and Sea World Helicopters had scheduled technicians to investigate the issue - but it had not been fixed before the collision.
Mr Wacker agreed with suggestions on Tuesday that the Sea World area could benefit from a dedicated air traffic controller to assist with the busy traffic in the area - which the inquest heard may be one of the busiest air corridors in the country.
He highlighted several issues with the traffic, including the busy radio frequency used by multiple helicopter companies in the area which led to communications sometimes getting “stepped on” when pilots spoke over the top of each other - making their words unintelligible.
Mr Harvey had outlined in his opening how the two helicopters which collided had operated from separate landing pads about 220 metres apart.
“The simultaneous use of these pads created a crossover or ‘conflict point’ in space,” he said.
The definition of “very close” was of aircraft separation of not more than 200 ft laterally and 200 ft vertically.
The court heard an Airservices Australia report undertaken after the incident found that during the busy 90-day period prior to the collision - in peak tourist season - there had been five very close pairs of “occurrences” involving Sea World Helicopters during take off and landing.
All but one of those occurrences was after the introduction of the EC130s, two weeks prior to the fatal collision.
Originally published as Sea World Helicopters employee reveals she ‘blamed herself’ for giving fatal chopper flight the all-clear
