Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright breaks silence on chopper crash which killed Chris ‘Willow’ Wilson

Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright has broken his silence on the February crash that killed his close friend Chris ‘Willow’ Wilson amid multiple concurrent investigations.

Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright. Picture: Supplied

Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright has broken his silence on the February chopper crash that killed his close friend and colleague Chris “Willow” Wilson to defend his aviation safety record amid multiple investigations into the accident and its aftermath.

The croc wrangler’s spokesman said Mr Wright flew on that same chopper just two days ­before the fatal crash that killed his friend, and seriously injured the pilot, during a crocodile egg collection mission in a remote part of West Arnhem Land.

“Two days before the accident, Matt and his family flew in the same helicopter,” the spokesman said.

“There is no way Matt would put his team or his family in danger. Matt’s priority has always been the safety of his team and his helicopters.”

Mr Wright’s spokesman also insisted that the chopper was maintained “according to regulations” and had undergone an independent “routine major inspection” three weeks before the accident and “given a clean bill of health”.

The Australian has verified that the chopper, registered VH-IDW, underwent a 100-hourly ­inspection on February 7 and was certified safe to operate.

On February 11 the helicopter returned to the engineer for “minor” additional work, after which the engineer performed a test flight, before again certifying it safe to operate.

The Australian has been told by sources with knowledge of the accident that between its 100-hour inspection and the February 28 crash, the chopper had logged 33 hours of flying time and that to Mr Wright’s knowledge, the hour meter was not tampered with, removed or replaced before Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigators arrived at the scene.

This comes after The Australian last month revealed that an aircraft engineer had previously emailed Mr Wright and injured pilot Sebastian Robinson, warning them that two of their choppers – neither of which were involved in the fatal crash – needed to have urgent maintenance work performed “before something happens”.

Coomalie Air chief engineer Geoff Morton emailed Mr Wright and Mr Robinson on January 30, 2020, alerting them that two of their Robinson R44 helicopters – registrations VH-XHB and VH-OAX – both needed to be “baselined and audited”.

“If there is an incident, the ultimate responsibility falls with the responsible owner of the aircraft, which is you guys,” he said.

“Let’s get this cleaned up ­before something happens.”

The Australian is not suggesting that those two helicopters were not properly maintained, only that Mr Morton had safety concerns about them in January 2020.

In the leaked email, obtained and verified by The Australian, Mr Morton told the men that they “really need to get on top of” the logbooks and technical records for the two choppers.

“If something happens, we will all be in the shit,” Mr Morton wrote.

Mr Wright emailed Mr Morton back two weeks later – on February 3, 2020 – indicating that he planned to “make sure everything is sorted out before we go out again”.

In February this year another Robinson R44 helicopter operated by Mr Wright’s company Helibrook and piloted by Mr Robinson – VH-IDW – fatally crashed on a crocodile egg collection mission in the Northern Territory.

Wilson, a cast member of ­National Geographic’s reality TV show Outback Wrangler, was killed when the chopper crashed on the King River, about 30km south of South Goulburn Island.

The 34-year-old had been strapped into a harness attached to a 30m-long line to collect crocodile eggs.

Mr Robinson is still recovering from serious injuries.

The Australian has previously revealed that Mr Wright flew to the scene immediately after the crash, along with Darwin publican Mick Burns, who owns the crocodile-egg harvesting business, and former senior Northern Territory policeman Neil Mellon.

Mr Mellon has since been charged with dozens of offences, including making a false statement, the destruction of evidence and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice in relation to the major crash investigation.

“What happened was a tragic accident and out of respect for the family of Chris Wilson, Matt won’t be making further comments about this issue,” Mr Wright’s spokesman said.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau’s preliminary report stated that their initial assessment indicated that the engine was stopped when the helicopter hit the ground and that its examinations “did not identify defects of the engine likely to ­result in engine stoppage”.

A source connected to the case alleged that no safety concerns about VH-IDW were raised with Mr Wright in the weeks before the accident and that the engine was not due for replacement at the time of the crash.

The release of the ATSB’s final report, which was expected to be published by the end of the year, has been delayed.

The ATSB said last week it planned to start drafting its final report soon and expected to publicly release its findings in the first quarter of next year.

NT police said the investigation into the crash was ongoing.