Among the exhibits was an audio statutory declaration Wright gave to NT Police in March 2022, just three days after the fatal crash.<\/p>\n
Wright told police that one of his companies, Helibrook, owned and operated the destroyed helicopter and that as soon as he heard about the crash, he flew to the site with crocodile harvester Mick Burns and former police officer Neil Mellon.<\/p>\n
As they arrived, a CareFlight crew was preparing to take off with Robinson on board, who had been critically injured.<\/p>\n
Listen to the audio in the video player above<\/p>\n
Detective Senior Constable Richard Musgrove asked Wright for his assessment of the scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone was pretty distraught and upset \u2026 and then saw the chopper down where it was and spoke to Burbs (pilot Michael Burbidge) a bit,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looked like Seb had done everything he could in our training and our power (as) a pilot to get Willow down safely.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was everything we spoke about, everything we did, it was like textbook in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Outback](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7a5e99e162b68819654e3bfd25a17e4bc2672e3f.jpg\")
Outback Wrangler Matt Wright and his wife Kaia Wright leaving his chopper crash conspiracy trial in the Supreme Court in Darwin on Thursday, August 28. Credit: Zizi Averill\/NCA NewsWire<\/p>\n
The Robinson R44 had crashed during a crocodile egg collecting mission in remote West Arnhem Land. Wilson, the egg collector, had been suspended beneath the helicopter on a 100-foot sling immediately before the aircraft came down.<\/p>\n
Wright\u2019s wife, Kaia, was present throughout the police interview and at times questioned her husband herself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about your assessment of the site \u2026 you know how you said Sebi did what he could? What made you say that?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
Wright said it was because \u201cWillow wasn\u2019t attached to the helicopter anymore\u201d and referenced Helibrook\u2019s standard operating procedures.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see that in the SOPs, the way we\u2019ve structured them, if something goes wrong with the helicopter you have to try and get that (crocodile egg) collector off (the hooks) as safely as you can and put yourself down wherever you can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd in that instance when you flare and you try to put them down and you then sacrifice yourself cos you drop down all your rotor speed.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd he\u2019s tried to do that and dropped Willow down but too high \u2026 and then 30m away the helicopter crashed so it was all relatively close.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen-Const Musgrove asked Wright why he believed that was what had happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wind was on the nose. It was a nice wind, an easy wind, and so he\u2019s come into that and there\u2019s a clear spot just back from where they\u2019d gone in,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like, that\u2019s where they\u2019ve lifted off from, not far away at all \u2026 and then literally Sebi stepped it into wind and just tried to come down, flared, dropped Willow off and put himself into the trees.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust didn\u2019t go as textbook as he would\u2019ve liked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sen-Const Musgrove then asked Wright to explain why he believed Robinson had flared the helicopter.<\/p>\n
Using a fan analogy, Wright explained the aerodynamics involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you flare a helicopter like that you bring all your centre of gravity to point straight in underneath it which then induces the flow underneath the rotors, speeds the rotors up, gives you that little bit of lift right at the end but that\u2019s your lifeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cSebi chose to use that for Willow.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/aa841af6b439fe3d14ac2c7af25cff099949a8f3.jpg\")
Chris “Willow” Wilson with his wife Danielle Wilson. Also known as Outback Wrangler Chris Wilson. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n
At another point during the hour-long interview, Mrs Wright told police she believed conditions had been favourable and the helicopter had been relatively light because the egg crates were empty.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah there was no weight in it, half fuel,\u201d her husband agreed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell that\u2019s what looked like was in the tanks, we looked in the tanks and that\u2019s what we could see but\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
Later in the interview, Sen-Const Musgrove returned to the topic of fuel.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo the machine was pretty flat and just opened the lid to look in and just to look through them but they were crumpled up, so \u2026 but there was, um, fuel in there – or fluid anyway,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked. I didn\u2019t have a torch or anything but I could see the shimmer of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Musgrove asked: \u201cIn your estimation how much fuel was left there?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI dunno, maybe half a tank,\u201d Wright replied.<\/p>\n
However, an intercepted telephone conversation between Wright and friend William Cook in December 2022 captured Wright giving a different account.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to fucking put Sebi in it, but I\u2019m not gonna fucking get put in the clink because of his downfall,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone who knows how to fly, you know the consequences of what happens when you punch someone off and try and save your ass. That\u2019s pretty much what\u2019s happened.<\/p>\n
![\"Pilot](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/381280331e624225e0efd968c4bd677905307e36.jpg\")
Pilot Sebastian Robinson and Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright on a crocodile egg collecting mission in January 2016. Photo: Supplied Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n
\u201cMy downfall was I was trying to protect Seb and said I looked in the tank and I thought it was half a tank. I didn\u2019t see any fucking fuel in the fucking tank. There was zero.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another covert recording captured a conversation between Wright and his mother-in-law, Lynn Hazelton, at his Queensland home in October 2022, during which the pair discussed the aftermath of the crash and Wright\u2019s inspection of the wreckage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate, the Neil factor, you know the whole \u2026 it\u2019s a cluster fuck, it\u2019s a cluster fuck,\u201d Ms Hazelton said.<\/p>\n
Wright replied: \u201cYou know what, fucking hell, sitting out there fucking Jocko (Jock Purcell) was like, \u2018Matty it\u2019s all good, don\u2019t touch anything\u2019. \u2018Nah Jocko, let me look\u2019. \u2018Matty it\u2019s all good, don\u2019t touch\u2019. I had to check for myself. I didn\u2019t know if Seb had fucked with the machine.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I was doing it to protect, yes me and Seb, and fuckin\u2019, anyway it was all good,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was all good. No one touched nothing, no one tampered with nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In another conversation recorded in September 2022, the Wrights discussed how many hours the destroyed helicopter, VH-IDW, had actually flown compared with the hours recorded on its maintenance records, and speculated about what had caused the fatal crash.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you\u2019re being a realist, like an honest-with-yourself realist, how many hours was it (the chopper) overflown?\u201d Mrs Wright asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cA couple of hundred,\u201d Wright replied.<\/p>\n
Asked how many hours were recorded on the helicopter\u2019s hour meter, Wright said about 2,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat do you think it was that made it stop?\u201d Mrs Wright asked. \u201cWhat do you think it was?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was the f**kin\u2019 fuel line,\u201d Wright replied.<\/p>\n
Mrs Wright asked: \u201cSo all the fuel issues before, like with the leak and stuff?\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Pictures](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/65101ed1f54e12e34a9ade7b15e89027f1093d4f.jpg\")
Pictures from the ATSB report into the chopper crash piloted by Sebastian Robinson where Outback Wrangler star Chris Wilson died. Credit: Supplied<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, now they think it ran out of fuel. I thought I was trying to protect him,\u201d her husband replied.<\/p>\n
Later in the same conversation, Wright expressed concern that the helicopter\u2019s recorded flight hours would not reconcile.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hours aren\u2019t going to match somewhere along the line, right. That\u2019s what my concern is,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to lie, but I don\u2019t want to tell the whole f–king lot either. But where is the happy medium, like in the middle?\u201d<\/p>\n
Another recording, captured in November 2022, features Wright and his wife discussing the helicopter\u2019s flight records.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just goes against, that goes with my argument of why did you try to get Seb to\u2026\u201d Wright asked.<\/p>\n
Mrs Wright\u2019s response is unintelligible on the recording.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, but I thought he flew that so I handed him that, that\u2019s what was logged, but you know, there was thirty or forty hours there that we were trying to fucking make up, and we did, it doesn\u2019t matter which way I looked at it,\u201d Wright said.<\/p>\n
\u201c(It doesn\u2019t matter which way) I look at that, there\u2019s no good answer for CASA.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nightly approached the Wrights for comment through their lawyer but received no response.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Outback Wrangler host Matt Wright praised the selfless actions of pilot Sebastian Robinson during a police interview just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63,43,44,8867,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-775311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-australia","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-northern-territory","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}