Chilling footage of pilot behind fatal chopper flight that triggered trial involving celeb croc wrangler Matt Wright
Chilling footage and ominous text messages have emerged of the pilot who was left a paraplegic after a fatal crash that triggered a trial involving a celeb croc wrangler.
The Northern Territory police will next week confirm whether there is any ongoing investigation into the pilot involved in a fatal chopper crash that killed crocodile egg collector Chris “Willow” Wilson, after a court heard evidence of the pilot having used cocaine in the hours before the flight and evidence the helicopter ran out of fuel.
Celebrity crocodile wrangler Matt Wright was convicted of two counts of perverting the course of justice over his actions in the aftermath of the crash in West Arnhem Land in 2022 that killed his best mate Chris “Willow” Wilson.
He has lodged an appeal that will be heard on October 7.
The pilot, Sebastian Robinson, suffered multiple spinal fractures in the crash, rendering him paraplegic.
During evidence in the highly-publicised four-week trial of Wright, Mr Robinson said that while he had no memory of the crash due to his injuries, he accepted he “must have intentionally disconnected” Wilson from the sling that was suspending him 25 metres above the ground.
An ATSB report into the cause of the crash – which is protected by the Transport Information Safety Act and therefore could not be used as evidence in a Supreme Court trial – found that the helicopter was “likely not refuelled at the en route fuel depot, which was about three quarters of the way between the departure location on the outskirts of Darwin and a clearing near King River where the helicopter and crew were to commence crocodile egg collecting”.
The report also found the pilot did not identify the reducing fuel state before the helicopter’s engine stopped in flight due to fuel exhaustion.
“During the subsequent autorotation, the pilot released the egg collector above a likely-survivable height, fatally injuring them.
“The pilot then completed the autorotation to the ground, but there was insufficient main rotor energy to cushion the landing. This resulted in serious injuries to the pilot and substantial damage to the helicopter.”
The ATSB report states people who attended the site after the crash reported “examination of the cowls (engine covers) did not identify any discolouration that would be associated with leaking fuel, either prior to, or after the accident”.
Two ATSB inesvtigators confirmed there was no fuel at the crash site. “There was no fuel smell, no fuel in the auxiliary tank and a very small quanitity of fuel in the main tank.”
A Careflight first responder “reported that there was no smell or indication of fuel”.
And an additional two independent people who were engaged by the AYSB to recover the wreck also stated there was no sign or smell of fuel at the site and that an angel-grinder was safely used to cut apart the helicopter which could never have been done if fuel was present.
The ATSB also found that the “pilot’s exposure to cocaine within the previous few days increased the likelihood of fatigue, depression and inattention” however it said there was “insufficient evidence to determine whether these effects occurred”.
The Transport Safety Investigation Act states that published ATSB reports must not be used in any criminal proceedings.
The trial heard additional evidence separate to the ATSB report of drug use and evidence that the Robinson R44 with call sign VH-IDW, owned by Wright, ran out of fuel.
The prosecution argued the drug use was not a factor in the crash, and rejected the argument of fuel exhaustion.
NT Police and the DPP have been asked whether the investigation into the cause of the crash is ongoing.
A police spokesman said on Thursday that an answer would be given next week.
Robinson has not been charged with any offences relating to the fatal crash or the evidence heard at Wright’s criminal trial.
Text messages referring to “coke” and “footy players in town” wanting “bags” were scraped from Robinson’s mobile phone and tendered in the case against Wright, the star of the Netflix reality adventure show Wild Croc Territory.
The messages appear on Snapchat and other chat forums between 2018 and 2021.
In one of the messages tendered to the court in Wright’s proceedings, an unknown person wrote: “Hey sebby any chance of booking you out for a day next week tues to Friday to do some cool shit if your not too busy 12 hours and coke bonus”.
Another message to Robinson said: “Anyone got bags” while Robinson appears to have written on another occasion: “I got cash” after telling someone who was “getting some coke” to “get me one”.
In another message: “Thanks for the weekend cobba the fuel cost $1100 so I’ll transfer you another $300 for the coke and another hundred to chip in for the fuel”.
One of the messages sent to Robinson says: “Footy players in town and want bags, RJ got any?”
During the trial Defence Counsel David Edwardson KC said Robinson “had the responsibility of ensuring that he was fit to fly that aircraft, that is, not fly with cocaine in his system”.
“He had the responsibility to refuel the helicopter with the fuel made available by Mick Burns from the preallocated drums at Mount Borradaile. These are matters that fell entirely within the responsibility of Sebastian Robinson as the pilot of IDW on 28 February 2022.
“These are matters that have absolutely nothing to do with Matt Wright. They are all Sebastian Robinson specific.”
Mr Edwardson told the jury Wright didn’t know the Robinson “had been partying in the day or days leading up to the crash”.
“Matt Wright didn’t know that Sebastian Robinson had cocaine in his system at the time of the crash. Matt Wright didn’t know that Sebastian Robinson had released Chris Wilson from a fatal height of 25 metres.
“Matt Wright didn’t know of the possibility that Sebastian Robinson had failed to refuel IDW at Mount Borradaile. Matt Wright didn’t know that the likely cause of the crash was fuel exhaustion.
“Matt Wright had no idea that the ATSB inquiry would suggest that the cause of the crash was probably fuel exhaustion. In essence Matt Wright knew bugger all.”
He said “What we do know” is that Robison had likely consumed on the expert evidence cocaine within four to eight hours of flying that helicopter, and that according to the experts … this immediately gives rise to the possibility of potential fatigue at the time of the accident, due to rebound effects following cocaine use and possibly due to sleep deprivation caused by insomnia arising from cocaine use and judgment, perception, decision-making and memory impairment”.
“That is the evidence that was read into the transcript, if you like, a potted summary, of the potential side effects or effects of somebody who has taken cocaine at a time proximate to the accident.”
The defence also pointed to Robinson’s brother Zac Chellingworth as having “quite a role to play”.
He was “getting the inside running with the ATSB”.
“He was the person that, as the investigation was unfolding with the ATSB, was taking photographs of the crashed helicopter, was sending text messages to Sebastian Robinson, particularly referable to this issue, this vexed question of no fuel”.
“He, like his brother, was on notice that that is exactly where the direction of the inquiry was going and, quite understandably can I suggest, why the collective clan would have been extremely concerned about the very real prospect that Sebastian Robinson might be held accountable for flying that aircraft high on cocaine and If ever there was a person that had an incentive to try and deflect from his conduct, it was him and his extended family.”
The defence also argued Robinson was not a credible witness.
“Another matter that goes to the credit and therefore reliability of Sebastian Robinson is his denial that he is a consumer of cannabis,” Mr Edwardson said.
“When presented with various text messages and indeed, self-made videos on his phone, despite the joint or cannabis by pipe – or whatever, in those videos, he denied that he was smoking cannabis or that he was a consumer of cannabis.
“If that is true, why was he texting his mother asking his mother if he can get ‘some green from Aunty Di’ or, on another occasion, ‘Johnny ‘.”
Crown Prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC told the jury that Robinson “on occasion got cocaine and provided it to his friends and the friends paid for their share – not for profit”.
“It wasn’t suggested – not once – that Sebastian Robinson was the drug baron of the Northern Territory – the Tony Mokbel or Carl Williams of the North – not once. It wasn’t put that he was in this for profit,” he said.
Mr Robinson’s use of cocaine in the days prior “certainly doesn’t make him responsible for the crash”, Mr Gullaci told the jury.
“Mr Robinson used cocaine. I think I said that in the opening, there was cocaine in his system, so you wouldn’t have been shocked by that,” he said in his closing address.
“He bought cocaine too – as I put to him. Unless there’s some different phenomenon in the Northern Territory from every other State and territory in Australia, you don’t get cocaine for free. So if you want to use it, if you are someone that occasionally recreationally uses it, which is what he said he did, well, guess what, you’ve got to buy it.”
The prosecution rejected the suggestion the chopper was not refuelled, pointing to a photograph that showed the reserve tank was three-quarters full and another witness, Timothy Luck, who said he was “very confident” he refuelled the chopper at Mount Borradaile shortly before the crash.
Robinson could not remember but told jurors he “knew in his heart” that the helicopter did not run out of fuel during the crash, and described other accounts as “rumours and whispers”.
The ATSB report stated: “There was no evidence of fuel leaks on the transmission deck, from either tank or associated fuel lines” and “no fuel in the auxiliary tank and a very small quantity of unusable fuel at the bottom of the main tank.”
The ATSB report concluded that “external examination found no evidence of a catastrophic engine failure.”
“There was also no evidence of failure or defects to the airframe or the helicopter’s systems likely to have contributed to the accident.”
The egg collecting trip started from Darwin with blue fuel in the helicopter.
The plan was to refuel with green fuel at Mount Borradaile before heading to the King River preparation area for the egg collecting.
However, the ATSB found only blue fuel, not green, in the crashed aircraft.
The court heard the helicopter burns at least 60 litres per hour, yet only a tiny 250 millilitres of blue fuel – an “unusable quantity” – was drained from it, suggesting a severe fuel shortage.
The ATSB and court evidence also showed there was no fuel pump available for Mr Luck to use at Mount Borradaile, as the other two machines’ pumps had already been packed up. And Mr Luck’s evidence in court was that the reason he refuelled IDW was because Willow and Seb were pulling the dual controls out.
But the court heard from other witnesses, that the dual controls remained in place in the helicopter until the staging area just before the crash occurred.
Out of the eight people present, one is deceased, and Sebastian Robinson doesn’t have any memories, only Mr Luck remembers IDW being refuelled.
Mr Edwardson argued “Mr Luck is either a Seb supporter and has come to support his mate on this topic of refuelling or, alternatively, Tim Luck was mistaken about refuelling IDW.
Either way, we say he cannot be correct”.
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Originally published as Chilling footage of pilot behind fatal chopper flight that triggered trial involving celeb croc wrangler Matt Wright
