Four-day inquest set down to examine death of hero search and rescue pilot Roger Corbin

The death of an exceptional Tasmanian pilot and search and rescue hero Roger Corbin will be examined in an inquest this month. DETAILS >

Funeral service for Roger Corbin at the Hobart Regatta Grounds. PICTURE CHRIS KIDD

A four-day inquest has been set down to examine the death of Roger Corbin, one of Australia’s most experienced search and rescue pilots.

The 57-year-old Otago Bay resident died in November 2017 when his helicopter, which was hovering 30-feet above ground, nosedived near Hobart Airport.

Mr Corbin was a father-of-three and a highly-decorated rescue pilot and the founder of Hobart helicopter company, RotorLift.

He was heralded as a hero and an “exceptional pilot”, with his death rocking Tasmania’s tight-knit aviation community.

Roger Corbin.

At the time of the crash, Mr Corbin was instructing a commercial pilot in a single-engine helicopter during a simulated emergency exercise, when it plunged to the ground.

Mr Corbin was killed instantly and the other pilot was seriously injured.

In 2020, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau found the pilots were training in how to land the helicopter in an emergency without hydraulic systems – but lost control when the aircraft entered a crosswind in a high hover.

The inquest, before Coroner Olivia McTaggart, will be held from April 24 to 28.

Mr Corbin was awarded in 2007 for his more than 700 emergency missions, including the rescue of a Japanese sailor off a yacht in treacherous Tasmanian conditions.

In 2004 and 2011 he received bravery awards for the Western Tiers and Flinders Island rescue missions.

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