‘It just went down to the ground’: One dead and one injured in Hobart Airport helicopter tragedy
UPDATED: FAMILY members and colleagues of a Tasmanian aviation pioneer who died in a tragic helicopter accident at the Hobart Airport say he will be hugely missed.
Tasmania
Don't miss out on the headlines from Tasmania. Followed categories will be added to My News.
UPDATED: FAMILY members and colleagues of a Tasmanian aviation pioneer who died in a tragic helicopter accident at the Hobart Airport say he will be hugely missed.
Roger Corbin’s wife Allana and daughters Isabella, Indiana and Sophia, along with Rotor-Lift Aviation staff, said it was with “great sadness” they could confirm the death of the 57-year-old.
“Roger will be hugely missed and we will have more to say as circumstances permit,” the statement said.
“We would like to extend our heartfelt gratitude and appreciation to all persons who attended the scene of the accident yesterday and in particular Airport Rescue and Fire Fighting, Tasmania Police, Ambulance Tasmania and Hobart International Airport officials.”
“We are unable to say anything further in relation to the circumstances of the accident until the completion of the official investigations and other procedures now in process.”
Family and staff asked that their privacy now be respected.
“The family will make a further statement in due course.”
Mr Corbin died just before 5.30pm on Tuesday when his RotorLift helicopter nosedived near the Hobart Airport tarmac from a height of about 200m.
A 33-year-old trainee pilot remains in a serious but stable condition in the Royal Hobart Hospital.
Tasmania Police Inspector Natasha Freeman said the “tragic incident” was being investigated.
“The circumstances surrounding the crash are being investigated and at this point, it is not possible to say who was in control of the dual-control aircraft at the time,” Insp Freeman said on Wednesday.
Mr Corbin, from Otago Bay on Hobart’s Eastern Shore, was the managing director of RotorLift and his website said he had more than 14,000 flight hours in fixed wing aircraft and helicopters.
RotorLift operates the Tasmania Police rescue helicopter and also conducts tours and flight training.
“Roger contributed greatly to helicopter rescue services around Australia for many years, and he along with his wife Allana, were the driving force behind the very establishment of our own Westpac Rescue Helicopter service in 2000,” the Tasmanian Westpac Rescue Helicopter service posted on Facebook.
“Roger’s contribution to our service and to Tasmania undoubtedly saved many lives and he will be missed.”
Flying school Advanced Flight Theory said Mr Corbin was a “legend of the skies taken too soon”.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau confirmed the aircraft was a single-engine AS350BA Squirrel helicopter.
A preliminary ATSB report will be released in about a month but the final report could take up to a year to complete.
Hobart Airport chief executive Sarah Renner said the crash was a terrible tragedy as she closed the airport on Tuesday night.
Flight operations returned to normal on Wednesday.
EARLIER: ROGER Corbin is being remembered as a passionate helicopter pilot and dedicated family man.
The 57-year-old RotorLift Aviation owner died during a helicopter exercise yesterday at Hobart Airport during which the aircraft plunged suddenly to the ground.
Sergeant Damian Bidgood, the Tasmania Police crew chief with RotorLift, had known Mr Corbin for 18 years.
“Roger was just — there isn’t any other way to put it — an absolutely exceptional pilot,” he said.
“He’s been passionately dedicated to all things helicopters, particularly the Tasmania Police Westpac Rescue helicopter. You just couldn’t ask for more from the man.
“The only thing he cared about more than delivering helicopter services was his family.”
Mr Corbin received multiple honours for his work.
In 2007 he was an Australian Search and Rescue Award recipient. He was cited for his more than 700 emergency missions including the rescue of a lone Japanese sailor from a yacht hundreds of kilometres off the coast of Tasmania in treacherous conditions.
In 2011 he was one of 14 rescuers who received a Tasmania Police Commissioner’s Commendation for coming to the aid of seven people stranded at Mount Strzelecki, Flinders Island, after a light plane crash in 2010.
Senior Constable Josh Peach, deputy crew chief, said the “loss will definitely be felt”.
“Everything at RotorLift came from him,” he said.
“His staff and us in the police respect everything he’s done, so we’re all going to do our very best to keep things running.”
Mr Corbin and wife Allana moved to Tasmania from Sydney in 2000, setting up RotorLift as the state’s emergency helicopter service and building the state’s first 24-hour helicopter base.
The couple are parents of twin girls.
Mr Corbin had 30 years of experience in the aviation industry and was a Civil Aviation Safety Authority approved examiner.
He had been conducting rescue operations since 1982, with extensive mountain flying and remote area experience in the South Pacific and Asia.
Mrs Corbin was severely injured in a plane crash in 1990 but learned to walk again and went on to become a motivational speaker.
In 1997, she obtained her commercial helicopter pilot’s licence and became the first woman to circumnavigate mainland Australia solo in a helicopter.
UPDATED: ROTORLIFT managing director Roger Corbin has been identified by police as the man who died in a helicopter crash at Hobart Airport.
Mr Corbin, 57, of Otago Bay, was riding in single-engine helicopter when it plunged from a height of about 200m onto the airport flight ground.
A 33-year-old man, the only other occupant of the chopper, is in a serious but stable condition in hospital.
Police are not yet able to say who was in control of the aircraft at the time.
Inspector Natasha Freeman said the thoughts of police — who use RotorLift helicopters for search and rescue operations — were with Mr Corbin’s family and loves ones.
“This is a tragic incident and we are working closely with Mr Corbin’s family,” Inspector Freeman said.
“The circumstances surrounding the crash are being investigated and, at this point, it is not possible to say who was in control of the dual control aircraft at the time.”
Members of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau are assisting Tasmania Police and the Coroner with the investigation.
EARLIER: The person who died in a chopper crash at Hobart Airport was a 57-year-old man, police have confirmed, with flights returning to normal the morning after the tragedy.
The crash happened about 5.20pm yesterday.
The aircraft nosedived from a height of about 200m onto a grass verge on the edge of the airport runway.
Police said the only other occupant, a 33-year-old male, was in a serious but stable condition in the Royal Hobart Hospital.
The helicopter was transported to a secure facility for further examination, police said.
In a Facebook message this morning, Hobart Airport said flights had returned to normal.
All flights in and out of Hobart were cancelled last night, with some services diverted to Launceston.
Bruny Island resident Mal Hawken arrived at Hobart Airport this morning after his flight was cancelled yesterday afternoon.
Mr Hawken was aboard a Qantas plane preparing for take-off when disaster struck about 5.20pm on Tuesday.
“I just thought I’d seen something out of the corner of my eye,” he said.
“When I got out (of the plane) I saw it. Poor guys.”
Passengers were told a runway incident had occurred and their fight was cancelled.
“It was pretty much chaos last night,” the fly-in, fly-out worker said.
“There were people everywhere.”
Some passengers were also transported by bus between Hobart and Launceston in an effort to help clear the backlog.
Air Transport Safety Bureau examiners are assisting Tasmania Police and the Coroner with the investigation.
EARLIER: A HORRIFIC air disaster at Hobart Airport has left one person dead, another in a hospital and plunged the state’s flight network into chaos.
Shocked onlookers watched as a blue single-engine helicopter carrying two people slammed into the ground about 500m from the terminal just before 5.30pm yesterday.
The helicopter was operated by local firm RotorLift, which performs search and rescue operations and medical evacuations for the state’s emergency services.
Police confirmed one man on board, aged 57, died in the crash which sent debris flying on to the tarmac. A second occupant, a 33-year-old man, was taken to the Royal Hobart Hospital and remains in a serious but stable condition. They were unable to confirm whether it was the pilot or the passenger who died.
Tasmania Police’s Inspector John Ward said the helicopter was about 200m off the ground when it nosedived.
“As a result, it crashed into the ground near the southern end of Hobart Airport, approximately four metres off the tarmac,” he said.
“It’s a tragic set of circumstances …. my sympathies go out to the family. I’ve spoken to several [RotorLift staff]. The only way I can describe it is that they are quite upset, they are distraught.”
Adele Khoury was waiting for her husband to arrive on a plane when she saw the crash.
She said the helicopter came in from the Pittwater area and was flying about tree height before performing a loop and descending into a nose dive.
“It went right along the runway and then was circling quite low over the [south] end of the runway and all of a sudden it just went down to the ground and all this smoke came up,” she said.
Scott McGinley, of Melbourne, said he saw airport staff crying in the terminal.
One person has died and another critical following a light helicopter crash at Hobart Airport, Tasmania, Australia. pic.twitter.com/eYXidhhVYk
— Brendan Grainger (@S118869) November 7, 2017
Emergency vehicles rushed to the airport, which remains closed until further notice, and an ambulance was seen racing towards Hobart just after 6pm.
Inspector Ward said police started received calls at 5.23pm about the crash and had four eyewitnesses on hand including ground staff.
It was not clear what had caused the crash, he said.
“We haven’t been able to speak to a patient who is now at the Royal Hobart Hospital. He has been in and out of consciousness,” he said.
“We will be able to speak to him in the next 24 to 48 hours to build a picture of what has occurred.”
The survivor’s condition is listed as stable.
Insp Ward said police were working through the night as part of the investigation and to clear the runway to allow the airport to reopen.
The aircraft had been severely damaged by the impact.
“It appears to me that it has pretty much broken in half. It has come from 200m to the ground so it is written off,” he said.
The aviation watchdog has launched an investigation into the crash which involved RotorLift’s single-engine AS350BA Squirrel helicopter.
The helicopter was removed from the airport overnight and taken to a secure facility for further investigation.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is calling for witnesses.
“A team of two transport safety investigators from Brisbane and Canberra will travel to the site shortly to begin their investigation,” an ATSB spokesman said.
“The ATSB encourages anyone who witnessed the accident to call 1800 020 616.”
The state’s air network was thrown into chaos with multiple flights cancelled and some passengers put up in hotels or shuttled to or from Launceston.
A Tigerair flight from Melbourne to Hobart was forced to return. Qantas cancelled three flights — a Hobart-Melbourne flight, a Melbourne-Hobart flight and a Sydney-Hobart flight affecting 300 passengers. One Virgin and two Jetstar flights from Melbourne were diverted to Launceston with passengers to be transported by bus to Hobart.
Virgin passengers scheduled for a later flight from Hobart were driven to Launceston to fly from the northern airport. Two Jetstar flights which were to have departed Hobart had been cancelled and passengers would be put on the first available outbound flights once the airport reopens.
Airlines said passengers had been accommodated in hotels, offered refunds and extra services would be put on to help clear the backlog when the airport was operational.
Hobart Airport CEO Sarah Renner said it was hoped flights would resume this morning.
“We are hoping but we are respectful of the police operation,” she said.
“On behalf of Hobart Airport I would like to say our thoughts are with those affected by this terrible tragedy.”
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority was monitoring the incident and said RotorLift indicated they would not be flying. Police said they did not expect this to affect rescue operations as there was a contingency plan in place.
A preliminary report by ATSB into the tragedy will be handed down in about 30 days.
Glenorchy company and director face over $100k in fines from Fair Work
The Fair Work Ombudsman is warning businesses who don’t obey workplace laws that they’re on watch after taking legal action against a Glenorchy company. What they could pay in fines:
New kid on the block Garland apologises for social media breach
Political newcomer Craig Garland admits he is still learning the finer points of Tasmania’s parliament, after being censured for publishing altered footage. How parliament responded: