The four people killed when two helicopters collided mid-air near Sea World on the Gold Coast have been named.
Sydney woman Vanessa Tadros died in the crash while her 10-year-old son survived and is fighting for his life in hospital.
British Ron and Diane Hughes, 65 and 57, who were recently married, have died. Vanessa Tadros is one of four people who crashed a helicopter near Sea World on the Gold Coast on Monday, January 2, 2022. (Supplied)
Helicopter pilot Ash Jenkinson, 40, who had worked at Sea World since 2019 and was a mentor to friends in the aviation industry, was the first to be identified as killed in the yesterday’s accident
Jenkinson’s friend Andy Taylor told Today the pilot was instrumental in flood relief efforts on northern rivers last year.
“It was a team effort with a bunch of our peers and Ash jumped on board immediately when he heard what we were doing,” Taylor said.
“And because of him, we were able to rescue a lot of people, get a lot of food and supplies to people who otherwise would never have gotten them.
Diane and Ron Hughes died when the helicopter they were in crashed near Sea World on the Gold Coast on Monday, January 2, 2022. (9News)
“It was very humbling to know that he leaves a bit of a legacy, especially with the boys and everyone in the Northern Rivers area. It was something very special for him.”
Taylor said she could not imagine what Helensvale-based Jenkinson’s family, including her one-year-old son, was going through.
“It was always there,” Taylor said.
“As I said before, he was a great man with a big heart and a true legend who has certainly left quite a legacy in the aviation space.”
Video from the scene appeared to show Jenkinson’s helicopter plummeting towards a sandbar on the Gold Coast Broadwater after the collision at around 2pm (3pm AEDT) yesterday.
All the seriously injured patients and the dead were in the same helicopter, which plummeted onto a sandbar in the Gold Coast Broadwater about 2pm (3pm AEDT) yesterday.
The six people on board the other aircraft, who managed to land safely, avoided serious injury.
Police said passengers in the second helicopter included a 27-year-old West Australian woman and two families from New Zealand who were traveling together.
They were a 44-year-old man and a 43-year-old woman from one family and a 48-year-old man and a 45-year-old woman from the other.
Sea World Chief Pilot Ashley Jenkinson. (Supplied)
One of the occupants escaped injury, while the others were taken to the Gold Coast University Hospital for treatment of minor injuries.
A hospital spokesman said all had been released from hospital, but police this morning said the pilot and a passenger were still receiving some treatment.
The tragedy could have been much worse
Experts from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau traveled to the Gold Coast yesterday to begin their investigations.
“So while it has been very tragic that four people have lost their lives and many families are grieving this morning, we could have had a much worse situation here,” he said.
“And the fact that that helicopter managed to land was quite remarkable.”
The accident is under investigation. (Today)
Investigators will investigate what happened in the cockpits immediately before the collision, as well as what processes were in place for the pilots to follow.
They will study footage and information from witnesses, surviving passengers and even tourists who took similar flights earlier in the day.
Mitchell said it appeared from initial footage that the main rotor blade of the takeoff helicopter, which had been in the air for less than 20 seconds, collided with the front cockpit of the landing helicopter.
The impact sheared off the gearbox and rotor blade, causing the aircraft to fall from the sky.
The rescue took several hours. (new)
“We have a reasonable understanding of what the two helicopters were doing, as I said, in those critical phases of the flight, but exactly why that happened, what was the range of visibility of the two pilots, what was going on inside the cockpits at weather, those are the things that will help us come together, potentially what could have been a contributing factor here,” Mitchell said.
“But it’s still very early stages of the research to start speculating.”