Footage shows passenger concerned by approaching chopper seconds before collision
A passenger on the surviving aircraft involved in the Gold Coast helicopter tragedy tried to alert their pilot of the incoming chopper, seconds before its rotor hit the cockpit window.
New footage, obtained by Seven News, reveals a passenger in the back seat of the ascending chopper repeatedly tapping the shoulder of pilot Michael James in an apparent panic, warning of the descending helicopter that was moving toward it.
Footage from Seven News shows the moments in the descending helicopter before it collided.Credit:Seven News
Pilot James then turns his head in response, while the passenger who alerted him grips his seat.
It’s the final moment before the aired footage pauses, just seconds before the two helicopters collide in midair.
In the helicopter where the footage was filmed, five people – including James – were injured by broken glass. Four people died and three others were seriously injured in the other helicopter.
The crash occurred on the Gold Coast at about 2pm on Monday. The descending chopper, featured in the footage, managed to land on the sandbank despite having major damage to its front windscreen, which was hit by the rotor of the other aircraft.
The other Sea World chopper, taking off, plunged to the ground.
British-born pilot Ashley Jenkinson, 40, Liverpool residents Ron and Diane Hughes, 65 and 57, and Sydney mother Vanessa Tadros, 36, died in the collision.
Tadros’ 10-year-old son Nicholas was on life support at the Gold Coast University Hospital on Wednesday. His father and Tadros’ husband, Simon Tadros, asked the public to pray for him.
“I do ask that if everyone can please say a prayer for Nicky, so he can wake up and make a good recovery,” he said on Facebook. “I’m asking for all your prayers to bring my little man back to me.”
In a new statement released on Wednesday evening, the two couples onboard the flight in the footage said they were “blessed to have been spared” but expressed their “deepest sympathies and sincere condolences” to the injured and deceased victims.
“Our hearts are so heavy for them,” the statement read.
“Our gratitude goes out to every bystander who ran to help, every police officer and emergency services personnel who helped us with our immediate needs keeping us calm and making us comfortable. We saw mateship in action.”
The two couples said their pilot “who, through all the chaos, landed the helicopter safely”, was a hero. “Thank you so very much.”
Investigators are continuing to examine the events leading up to the crash. They have said their evidence would include footage of, and from inside, the helicopters.
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