Sea World chopper crash investigators move closer to solving mystery

Air crash investigators have left the Gold Coast after wrapping up crucial early investigations into the Sea World helicopter disaster using drones to mimic the fatal flight path.

Air crash investigators have left the Gold Coast after wrapping up crucial early investigations into the Sea World helicopter disaster using drones to mimic the fatal flight path.

An Australian Transport Safety Bureau team has been on the Glitter Strip since the January 2 crash which left four people dead and seriously injured seven others.

Sea World Helicopters chief pilot Ash Jenkinson, British tourists Ron and Diane Hughes and Sydney woman Vanessa Tadros were killed in the tragedy. Mrs Tadros’s 10-year-old son Nicholas was critically injured while Geelong mum Winnie de Silva and her 9-year-old son Leon suffered serious injuries.

One of the helicopters pictured at the Gold Coast Water police headquarters. Picture NewsWire / David Clark

ATSB investigators left the Coast on Thursday after an exhaustive probe including the use of drones to simulate the moments that led to the mid-air collision.

ATSB chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said his team had also used a helicopter similar to the two involved in the crash to try to piece together what happened.

Sea World Helicopters chief pilot Ash Jenkinson.

“We’ve had drones up there flying the flight paths of those two helicopters, we are reconstructing what was seen from both pilots, from one of the other helicopters up there similar (to) the two involved in the collision,” he told the Today Show on Friday.

“We’ll get a better picture of the totality of that evidence. What we don’t do is come up with one piece of evidence and come up with a theory. We spend a number of months then run a hypothesis by the evidence, it’s either supported by the evidence or not.

“It’s a lengthy process but it’s to get a safe outcome (so) we cannot only determine what occurred but what were the circumstances that allowed it to occur.

“Most importantly (to) ensure it doesn’t reoccur.”

Vanessa Tadrosm, who died in the crash, with son Nicholas who remains in hospital. Picture Nine News.

Ron and Diane Hughes pictured on their Gold Coast holiday. The English couple died in the Sea World Helicopters collision on January 2, 2023. Picture: Supplied by the family of Ron and Diane Hughes.

Mr Mitchell said the ATSB had “considerable powers” and had gathered 90 witness statements and “well over a dozen videos” taken from inside the helicopters and nearby buildings.

“We are stitching that together to get a better appreciation of what occurred on that day,” he said.

“When we find particularly catastrophic accidents like this, it is never one thing, it is a range of things that have lined up – whether that’s maintenance, or fatigue, the visibility, the sun … there are a whole range of things to (look at).”

An initial investigation report is expected within weeks.

Police are also conducting a separate investigation for a likely coronial inquest.

Bunches of flowers and tributes at the memorial site in the Broadwater Parklands on the Gold Coast. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Clark

Meanwhile, one of the crash survivors has broken down in tears as she recounted her horrific near-death experience in an interview with Channel 9’s 60 Minutes to air on Sunday night.

New Zealand tourists Elmarie and Riaan Steenberg and Marle and Edward Swart were in the helicopter that crash-landed on a Southport Broadwater sandbank after colliding with the other Sea World chopper mid-air during the fateful joy flight.

The two women were left covered in shrapnel and spent several days in hospital before returning home to Auckland with their husbands last month.

In a tearful 60 Minutes interview, Mrs Steenberg told of the moments leading up to the crash.

“I was still looking at all the views and it was really beautiful,” she said.

“Then I heard from the microphone somebody saying ‘on your left, on your left’. I thought it’s something beautiful (to look at).

“I looked at the left and I saw the helicopter underneath me and then I knew we were in serious trouble. I actually said ‘please God, help us’. And then I heard the explosion.”