CASA gave Matt Wright exemption before Chris Wilson’s fatal chopper crash

CASA granted Matt Wright and two mates exemptions that allowed them to collect crocodile eggs with someone hanging from their R44 helicopters.

Chris Wilson.

The Civil Aviation Safety Authority granted Netflix star Matt Wright and two of his mates ­exemptions that allowed them to collect crocodile eggs with someone hanging from their helicopters – after its chief executive and board members received a private demonstration – just months before the fatal chopper crash that killed Chris Wilson.

New flight operations rules, ­effective from December 2021, stipulated that only turbine-­engine-powered helicopters were permitted to carry a person externally for sling operations.

Despite this, in September 2021, CASA granted Wright and pilot Michael Burbidge an exemption allowing them to continue carrying crocodile-egg collectors beneath their piston-engine-powered Robinson R44 aircraft for ­another three years.

In February last year Wilson – who starred on Outback Wrangler and Wild Croc Territory – was killed when the Robinson R44 Raven II he was slung beneath crashed in a remote part of West Arnhem Land during an egg-collecting mission. Pilot Sebastian Robinson was critically injured.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s preliminary ­report revealed the chopper’s ­engine had stopped before the helicopter hit the ground.

The destroyed chopper was owned and operated by Wright’s company Helibrook and contracted to Mick Burns’ company Wildlife Harvesting NT.

Shortly before the exemptions were granted, Mr Burns and Wright met CASA chief executive Pip Spence and board members Tony Matthews, Michael Bridge and Elizabeth Hallett in Darwin.

The CASA executives had travelled to the Territory in June 2021 for a safety forum, regular board meeting and industry ­engagement events. CASA said it fully-funded its employees’ travel.

While in Darwin, Ms Spence, also director of aviation safety, and her three board members visited Mr Burns’ business Crocodile Farms NT where they were briefed on its operations and how the looming new flight rules would affect its ability to collect crocodile eggs.

Celebrity croc-wrangler Wright then took the CASA CEO and Board members for a flight on one of his Bell choppers to see the scale of the company’s operations and the remote environment in which egg collection is undertaken.

The following month, CASA granted another of Burns’ companies, Porosus, a Supplemental Type Certificate allowing it to use dual cargo hooks for human external cargo operations on Robinson R44 and R44 Raven II helicopters for the purpose of crocodile-egg collecting.

A couple of months after that, CASA granted Helibrook and Mr Burbidge’s company, Northshore Holdings NT, an exemption ­allowing them to collect crocodile eggs via a sling person.

The authorisation was subject to many conditions, which included fitment of dual external cargo hooks under the certificate issued to Burns.

Among its 33 conditions, the sling person must carry a “readily ­accessible harness knife capable of cutting the lifting strop or harness in an emergency”. Also that the sling person “must be made aware, in writing, that the hook system is not certified for human use”.

CASA this week confirmed that Robinson R44 aircraft “can no longer be used for this kind of operation” under Civil Aviation Safety Regulations.

“Transitional arrangements vary between operators based on when an approval was granted but the longest an approval could be used is up to two years after it was made,” a spokesperson said.

While the exemptions granted to Wright and Burbidge in September 2021 state they will not be ­repealed until September 2024, CASA told The Australian their exemptions will cease after two years.

Since Wilson’s death, NT WorkSafe has prohibted the practice of collecting crocodile eggs from the wild by transporting workers suspended from a helicopter via a sling.

CASA board member Mr Bridge also sits on the Northern Territory Tourism board of commissioners alongside Mr Burns.

Tourism NT said it had no knowledge of, or involvement in, CASA’s visit. Wright declined to comment and Mr Burns, who is a­ ­director of Crocosaurus Cove and owns the Darwin Crocodile Farm that houses about 70,000 salt­water crocodiles, did not respond to requests for comment.