A paraplegic pilot who survived a fatal chopper crash says reality television star Matt Wright visited him in hospital and asked him to manipulate flight records before deleting data from his phone.
Sebastian Robinson has told the jury in Mr Wright’s criminal trial that he was still heavily sedated, in “very bad shape” and “hallucinating” when the celebrity croc-wrangler visited him in hospital in March 2022.
Just days earlier – on February 28 – Mr Robinson was critically injured when the helicopter he was flying crashed during a crocodile egg collecting mission at West Arnhem Land. His friend and egg collector Chris Wilson, who had been slinging beneath the chopper, was killed.
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Outback Wrangler Matt Wright and his wife Kaia Wright approaching the Supreme Court in Darwin on Tuesday August 12. NewsWire/ Zizi Averill Credit: News Corp Australia
The aircraft – a Robinson R44, registered VH-IDW – was owned and operated by Mr Wright’s since-liquidated company Helibrook.
Mr Wright is on trial in the Northern Territory Supreme Court after being charged with three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the investigation into the fatal crash. The 45-year-old Top End tourism operator has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
During his second day of evidence Mr Robinson told the jury that Mr Wright visited him in Royal Brisbane Hospital twice after the crash. The first visit, with his wife Kaia, was on March 11.
Mr Robinson said he was hallucinating and “in a very bad shape”.
“I had tubes coming out of me everywhere, I had braces on my neck, ankles and elbow,” he told the court.
“I was still heavily sedated and under a lot of medication.
“If I wanted to get out of bed I had to put a neck brace on, I had to get a hoist to lift me into a wheelchair.”
Mr Robinson said Mr Wright brought some documents with him to the hospital.
“I remember laying in the bed looking down at an arrangement of documents all across in front of me,” he said.
Under questioning from crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC, Mr Robinson confirmed Mr Wright had left two documents at the hospital and his mother, Noelene Chellingworth, took a photograph of them.
Mr Gullaci asked Mr Robinson why Mr Wright had visited.
Pilot Sebastian Robinson, who was critically injured in the chopper crash that killed Netflix star Chris Wilson, is expected to give evidence at Outback Wrangler Matt Wright’s criminal trial in Darwin. Credit: Unknown/Supplied
The 32-year-old said the Outback Wrangler host had wanted “to manipulate hours on my aircraft”.
“He asked if I would consider putting any of his hours, from his helicopter, on to my helicopter.”
The court heard Mr Robinson was being asked to put egg-collecting hours flown in VH-IDW on to his own helicopter, registered VH-ZXZ, which was not equipped for egg collecting.
“ZXZ was not fitted with dual hooks to sling people,” he said.
“It was not used for the purpose of human external cargo and was not fitted with the equipment to do so.
“I was still in a pretty bad way, very confused and knew something wasn’t right and I said I’d think about it, from memory.
“I remember something along the lines of him saying, ‘Just have a think about it and I’ll come back and see you tomorrow’.”
Mr Wright then visited Mr Robinson in hospital again on March 13 and brought his friend Jai Tomlinson with him.
Mr Wright allegedly brought up the transfer of flight hours from IDW to ZXZ.
“I just remember having concerns about what was happening,” Mr Robinson said.
“I said I didn’t feel comfortable doing it.
“I don’t think he was upset, from the way I remember it he sort of said, ‘that’s OK’,” he said.
Mr Robinson alleged Mr Wright also asked for the injured pilots personal mobile phone.
“He asked to go through my phone and delete a few things,” Mr Robinson said.
“I remember looking over and seeing him holding my phone and flicking through it and deleting things.”
Mr Robinson said he also “vaguely” remembers “deleting notes out of my phone” while Mr Wright was with him at hospital.
“Start and stop times for IDW for egg collection,” he said.
“They were notes in my iPhone that I would send to him, for example, at the end of the week after a week of collecting.
“It was a very hard time for me. I didn’t know who to trust and I panicked and went along with it.”
Snippets of a secret recording made during Mr Wright’s hospital visit were also played to the jury.
In the recording Mr Wright can allegedly be heard talking to someone on his mobile phone, while in the hospital room with Mr Robinson, about the manipulation of his flight records.
Mr Gullaci said Mr Wright can be heard, in one section of the recording, asking someone “we don’t even need to fill a trip sheet out for that do we?”.
Mr Robinson said trip sheets had not been used at Helibrook for years and he had not completed one for at least 12 months prior to the crash.
“There was a small period, from memory, with the previous chief pilot, where he showed us how to use them but it wasn’t common practice to fill them out,” he said.
When Mr Gullaci on Wednesday presented Mr Robinson with three trip sheets he had purportedly filled out in February 2022, Mr Robinson denied it was his handwriting.
“Did you fill that in?” Mr Gullaci asked.
“No I did not,” Mr Robinson said.
Pilot Sebastian Robinson, who was critically injured in the chopper crash that killed Netflix star Chris Wilson, is expected to give evidence at Outback Wrangler Matt Wright’s criminal trial in Darwin. PICTURED: Pilot Sebastian Robinson (l) and Chris Wilson Unknown Credit: Unknown/Supplied
“That’s fabricated. I did not do that,” he said.
Earlier on Wednesday the court heard Mr Wright was not on the egg-collecting mission the day of the crash “because he was an anti-vaxxer” so could not enter Arnhem Land where strict COVID restrictions were in place.
“It was just common knowledge that he wasn’t vaccinated, so he couldn’t do any work in Arnhem Land,” he said.
“Everyone knew that Matt was an anti-vaxxer so he could only fly in places where there weren’t restrictions.”
Despite this, Mr Wright flew to the remote crash site after learning of the accident.
Mr Robinson said there were also restrictions on who could visit him in hospital and that visitors “had to have a valid COVID certificate”.
The trial before acting Justice Alan Blow continues.