Outback Wrangler Matt Wright slings TV stars Samantha Armytage and Edwina Bartholomew into croc nests without CASA approval

Matt Wright and his colleagues appear to have been flouting flight rules by slinging TV stars beneath choppers and onto croc nests.

Chopper crash victim Chris Wilson, Matt Wright and journalist Edwina Bartholomew being filmed in March 2013.

Outback Wrangler Matt Wright and his colleagues, including one of the Northern Territory’s most powerful men, appear to have been flouting flight rules by slinging television stars beneath their choppers and on to crocodile nests in front of millions of viewers.

The Australian has obtained evidence, including video footage, of possible breaches of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority approvals granted to Wright, pilot Michael Burbidge and “crocodile king” Mick Burns to collect crocodile eggs via a person slung beneath a helicopter.

The men have allegedly been involved in separate incidents which have included slinging wealthy thrillseekers, tourists and television presenters – including Samantha Armytage and Edwina Bartholomew – beneath choppers and on to crocodile nests, on various occasions in the past 12 years, without CASA’s permission.

The incidents reveal a culture of alleged non-compliance with CASA regulations that appears to have been fostered from the top of the NT’s lucrative crocodile egg farming industry.

Every year CASA has been renewing approvals for Wright and Burbidge to collect crocodile eggs for Burns’ company Wildlife Harvesting NT, which supplies crocodile skins to luxury French fashion houses including Hermes and Louis Vuitton.

The CASA approval – called a Legislative Instrument – allows the operators to collect crocodile eggs via a sling person beneath their R44s in strict compliance with 33 conditions.

“The pilot in command is authorised to pick up a single person (the sling person), positioned in a harness system attached to a helicopter in flight, for the sole purposes of the activity,” it says.

“Persons other than crew members essential to the activity are not carried.”

The instrument – obtained by The Australian through a Freedom of Information application – states that “only persons employed or contracted for the purposes of the activity” of crocodile egg collecting are allowed to be carried.

“To avoid any ambiguity, this instrument does not permit persons who have provided consideration of any nature to any party to conduct egg collection activities or to be slung from the aircraft involved in such activities,” it says.

However, sources alleged that a tourist in his 30s was slung beneath a helicopter and on to a crocodile nest during an egg collecting mission as recently as March 2021 and that similar incidents have been happening for years.

In 2011 Network Seven’s Sunday Night program produced a segment about Wright in which Armytage was slung beneath a helicopter, over crocodile-infested swamps, during a piece to camera in the remote Litchfield region. Later that year Armytage and Wright sat down with Chris Bath and Mike Munro for a followup segment, during which the correspondent said she “always felt quite safe” with the celebrity croc-wrangler.

2011: Journalist Samantha Armytage being slung beneath a helicopter for a segment about Outback Wrangler Matt Wright.

“I was scared but I never really felt unsafe at any point, (perhaps) on that boat a little bit, but I always felt like you were in control whenever we were catching crocs or flying or wherever we were on that five-day shoot,” she told him.

“I always felt quite safe. You‘re very careful in what you do.”

Wright replied: “Definitely. You got to be careful to do these things.”

Bath quipped: “Except when you‘re hanging from a helicopter which Sam did in the story.”

“That was my producer, we’ll talk to him about that,” Armytage replied. “That wasn’t my idea or even Matt’s idea.”

In 2013, Seven produced another segment about rising star Wright in which Bartholomew, now a presenter on Sunrise, was slung beneath a helicopter before being dropped into 15-foot cane grass near a crocodile nest with Wright. The Robinson R44 Raven II helicopter was owned and piloted by Michael Burbidge.

2013: Journalist Edwina Bartholomew being dropped near a crocodile nest with Matt Wright.

Burns also appeared on the program, telling Bartholomew how he “hatched a plan to turn crocs into cash” by farming saltwater crocodiles and selling their skins to French fashion houses who turn the leather into the world’s most expensive handbags.

“(The industry) is probably worth about $30m to the Territory at the moment,” he said more than a decade ago.

A few weeks later Wright shared photos on Facebook.

“Filmed a great show with Ch 7 a month ago should be coming out in a few weeks on Sunday Night it’s a cracker,” he wrote.

“Taking Edwina Bartholomew on an adventure of a lifetime into the depths of a crocodile infested jungle, hanging from the 100ft line under the chopper, its one you don’t wanna miss so keep an eye out for it.”

Around the same time Wright and Burns had taken a group of businessmen on a customised “trip of a lifetime” adventure tour in which they were slung on to crocodile nests for large sums of money for charity.

Adelaide hotelier Peter Hurley confirmed to The Australian that he took part in a crocodile egg collecting mission in March 2013 to raise money for the Tiwi Bombers Football Club which Burns sponsored. Last month, the managing director of Hurley Hotel Group said he had been on many trips with Wright and Burns, and considered them friends.

Former Premier of South Australia Jay Weatherill with Adelaide hotelier Peter Hurley. Source: Twitter

“I’ve been on pleasure fishing trips with Matt in helicopters as well as egg collecting for Mick’s croc farming business,” he said.

“I can remember going up to Bathurst Island egg collecting … I think we all paid six or 10 thousand dollars or something but I would also emphasise ... they were extremely safety conscious. The nests were in heavily wooded areas so you had to be dropped in and that was a very … it was an adrenaline thing, I concede.”

The former president of the Australian Hotels Association said he was accompanied on the trip by “several prominent people who I shouldn‘t name”.

“I’ve forgotten the quantum of money we raised … but it was a very substantial sum.”

Mr Hurley added that “it was a very professional operation”.

Samantha Armytage speaking with Matt Wright in 2011 after being slung beneath a helicopter over crocodile infested swamps in the remote Litchfield region.

The journalists and tourists involved are not accused of any wrongdoing as it is incumbent on the crocodile egg collecting operators and pilots to comply with CASA’s regulations.

Under its instrument the person being slung must have completed training, been inducted into the operator’s organisation and met other conditions.

CASA on Wednesday said crocodile egg collecting operators had never been authorised to carry tourists or members of the media slung beneath a helicopter, and “such activity ... would be considered a serious offence”.

The instrument conditions also state that “only one person is carried below the aircraft at any one time”. However a video obtained by The Australian shows Burns and another egg collector on a dual sling in February 2011.

Wright declined to answer The Australian’s questions but his spokesman said “safety is and always has been a priority for Matt and his team”. “This is scraping the bottom of the barrel for publicly available interviews from 12 years ago in order to manufacture negative stories,” he said.

The Seven Network, Burns and Burbidge did not respond to questions.