Reality-TV star Matt Wright routinely told his helicopter pilots to “pop the clock” on their machines so flight hours wouldn’t be recorded and service checks could be put off, a court has been told.
The Outback Wrangler star was looked up to by young pilots who readily followed his orders despite his failure to follow aviation rules, a jury in the Supreme Court in Darwin was told.
Sebastian Robinson, who was left a paraplegic following a February 2022 crash that killed Wright’s co-star and mate Chris “Willow” Wilson, gave evidence by video link on Tuesday.
Wright has pleaded not guilty to three charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Prosecutors allege he was worried crash investigators would uncover that flight-time meters were disconnected regularly to extend flying hours beyond official thresholds and paperwork was falsified.
Wilson was slung on a line below a chopper during a crocodile-egg collecting mission in remote swampland in the Northern Territory when he plunged to his death.
The machine then crashed, seriously injuring Robinson, who on Tuesday appeared by video link in a wheelchair.
Questioned by Crown Prosecutor Jason Gullaci, the 32-year-old said at the time of the crash he was head of aircraft airworthiness and maintenance control for Wright’s Helibrook company, but in name only.
Wright, the chief pilot, made the decisions about aircraft flying hours and maintenance schedules, he said.
Robinson’s name was put forward to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority so Helibrook could operate with a designated maintenance controller but he didn’t fulfil the role and was never paid for it, he said.
He agreed disconnecting Hobbs flight-hour recording meters and falsifying paperwork to match was a “very common” practice at Helibrook, with Wright directing pilots to do so.
“He’d say ‘pop the clock for this trip’,” Robinson said, referring to disconnecting meters.
When asked if he and other pilots obeyed Wright’s instructions he replied: “Absolutely … if he said ‘Jump’, I’d say ‘How high?’.”
Wright was a major public figure, everyone wanted to work for him and young pilots wanted to please the TV star, Robinson said.
Gullaci asked him if he could detail his injuries sustained in the crash.
“I can but it obviously it makes me a little bit upset,” Robinson replied, saying he could not remember the crash.
He listed fractures of his vertebrae, resulting in a complete severance of his spinal cord, rendering him a paraplegic.
Both his lungs were punctured, his left elbow and ankles were fractured and he suffered a traumatic brain injury that still causes him cognition problems and mood swings.
“I definitely feel I’m a different person,” he told the court.
The charges against Wright do not relate to the cause of the accident and the prosecution does not allege he is responsible for either the crash, Wilson’s death or Robinson’s injuries.
The trial continues.
–AAP
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