‘Instructors like Roger don’t exist anymore’: Wife of late rescue pilot gives evidence at inquest

“Roger would never have given up. He would have strangled that thing to the ground.” The widow of rescue pilot Roger Corbin has given emotional evidence on the final day of an inquest.

Roger and Allana Corbin’s wedding day.

The widow of rescue pilot Roger Corbin says flight instructors like her late husband “just don’t exist anymore”.

On Friday, Allana Corbin was the final witness in a four-day inquest into her husband’s 2017 death at Hobart Airport during a helicopter training exercise.

“Roger would never have given up. He would have strangled that thing to the ground. Whatever it was, it had gotten out of control,” Mrs Corbin said during her emotional testimony.

Mrs Corbin said she met Roger in 1994 after she’d just completed her commercial helicopter licence and he was to provide her endorsement.

“I didn’t like him much at the time,” she said.

“Over time, he certainly changed that.

“I had a commercial licence, but he taught me how to fly.”

Mrs Corbin said she undertook the same hydraulics-off training with her husband in the same aircraft that crashed, the AS350 Squirrel.

AUGUST 26, 2003 : Author Allana Corbin who is a pilot with her own helicopter in background at Hobart Airport, 26/08/03. Pic Chris Crerar. F/L Tasmania / Aviation / Aircraft

“It’s pretty hard, it’s pretty tough, I had to get my warrior-woman on,” she said.

“To do that type of emergency training is pretty challenging.

“I found it challenging, but I also found it extremely exciting and rewarding.”

Mrs Corbin said she was a new pilot at the time, when Roger taught her how to control the aircraft in an emergency without hydraulic systems.

“It was the equivalent of going from riding a pushbike to driving a Ferrari,” she said.

“That sort of training and experience was such a privilege.”

Mrs Corbin said her husband had been dismayed by the lack of practical training these days, with students provided overly-academic instruction.

“Unfortunately instructors like Roger just don’t exist anymore,” she said.

She also said her family understood they might never know the answer to what happened in the cockpit in the final moments before her husband’s death.

“As a family, we are comfortable with that. We don’t need a definitive answer to have closure,” she said.

“I was reluctant to sit through the proceedings this week, but my daughter – who’s a chip off the old block – was insistent.”

Roger Corbin, who was the chief pilot, chief flying instructor and sole director of his company Rotorlift Aviation, died instantly in the accident, while his student John Osborne was seriously injured.

Coroner Olivia McTaggart adjourned the inquest, with submissions to be heard at a date to be determined.

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