It was billed as an affordable, once-in-a-lifetime helicopter joyride over the Gold Coast. But on Monday, it went horribly wrong.
From $70 per passenger, Sea World Helicopters takes visitors on a five or 10-minute flight over the Gold Coast. From high above the theme park passengers take in sweeping views of the ocean, Surfers Paradise and the hinterland.
The blades spun and the helicopter rose. But at the same time, another Sea World helicopter with five passengers aboard was preparing to land.Twenty seconds after it lifted into the air, Jenkinson’s aircraft collided with the second helicopter. It lost its main rotor and gearbox, flipped and crashed heavily into a sandbar.
The pilot of the second aircraft managed to land safely on the sandbank. Five of the six aboard - a pilot, a West Australian woman and two New Zealand couples - suffered shrapnel wounds from a shattered windscreen. “An amazing pilot,” a friend Lucy Rachel said on Facebook. “Always so kind, helpful, and supportive. A true gentleman, and always willing to lend a hand.”
De Silva and her son were on a brief holiday from Geelong. Her husband, Neil, set up a Go Fund Me Page to help cover the family’s costs. “Thankfully, they are both alive but have a lot of surgery ahead of them, which means the family will need to stay here on the Gold Coast and I won’t be able to return to work,” he wrote.Air safety investigators are looking into the causes of the crash. There were recording devices on board. It expects to finish a preliminary report within eight weeks.
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