Footage taken inside one of the helicopters involved in the Sea World crash has revealed how one passenger tried to alert the pilot of something moments before the horrifying collision.
A passenger on the helicopter that landed without casualties took the chilling video during the joy flight.
In the video, the arm of one of the passengers can be seen tapping the pilot’s chair, with the video paused just before impact.
Pilot Ash Jenkinson, British newlyweds Ron and Dianne Hughes and Sydney mum Vanessa Tadros lost their lives after the two helicopters collided on the Gold Coast on Monday afternoon.
It comes as one of the first people on the scene after the horrific Sea World helicopter crash has spoken out about the efforts to save the victims.
Ron Drevlak and his wife were walking their dog on the Gold Coast when the horror happened just above their heads on Monday.
“The noise and the thud of it hitting the ground, I cannot get it out of my head,” Mr Drevlak told 7 News.
He and others immediately rushed to help those trapped inside the wreckage of the helicopter and was met with a horrific scene.
Mr Drevlak first saw Ron Hughes, who had been visiting the Gold Coast with his new wife Diane when they decided to board the helicopter.
“The first person I saw was Ron, we cut the seat belt we pulled him out and pulled him away but he was very pale,” he recounted.
The couple were among the four killed in the crash, with Sydney mother Vanessa Tadros, 36, also not making it out alive.
His attention then turned to two other victims from the same helicopter, Winnie and Leon de Silva, a mother and son who had travelled to the Gold Coast for the school holidays when their trip turned into a nightmare.
“That‘s when I heard Winnie, she was just screaming,” Mr Drevlak said.
“I said, ‘look don’t worry, help is on the way, it’s only water we’re just trying to dilute the fuel’.”
Mrs de Silva remains in a critical condition at Gold Coast University Hospital while Leon is in a stable condition at the Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane.
Another boy, the 10-year-old son of crash victim Vanessa Tadros, also remains in a critical condition at Gold Coast University Hospital.
A helicopter with seven people on board was taking off when its main rotors collided with a landing helicopter with six people on board, causing “considerable damage”, Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell told reporters on Tuesday.
The main rotor blade and gearbox of the “taking-off” helicopter separated from the aircraft, causing it to plunge at least 200m onto the sandbar.
The second “landing” helicopter was “remarkably” able to land upright on the sandbar despite “considerable damage” to the front of the aircraft.
“It was a remarkable job considering the damage that was done to the front-left hand part of the aircraft where the pilot was sitting,” Mr Mitchell said.
“We could have had a far worse situation here.
The six passengers – including the pilot – were treated for minor injuries and have since been discharged from hospital.
