Sea World helicopter crash: video shows inside the cockpit and pilot pulling survivors from wreck

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Chilling footage from inside cockpit shows passenger warning pilot just before fatal collision with another SeaWorld helicopter - as video also shows surviving pilot helping to free those trapped in wreckage of the chopper where four people died

Footage shows inside the cockpit of a helicopter involved in Sea World crash Passenger in the back seat appears to try and warn pilot of approaching aircraft Four people in other helicopter were killed after rotor detached and it plunged Pilot Michael James somehow managed to stablise his aircraft and land upright 

By Brett Lackey For Daily Mail Australia

Published: 04:13 EST, 4 January 2023 | Updated: 04:59 EST, 4 January 2023

Video from inside the cockpit of one of the helicopters involved in the Sea World tragedy shows a passenger warning the pilot of the other approaching aircraft.

The footage obtained by Seven News shows inside the higher positioned helicopter that was flying in to land - which the pilot managed to stablise after the collision allowing all on board to walk away with minor injuries.

A passenger in the back seat is shown repeatedly tapping the pilot on the right shoulder with increasing urgency.

Four people on the lower helicopter were killed after it nosedived into the sandbar on the Gold Coast Broadwater on Monday - pilot Ash Jenkinson, 40, British nationals Ron and Diane Hughes, 65 and 57 and Sydney mum Vanessa Tadros, 36.

Footage shows inside the higher positioned helicopter before the collision (pictured) 

Ms Tadros's heartbroken husband Simon has asked for prayers for the couple's son Nicholas who has undergone multiple operations in hospital since the accident.

'I do ask that if everyone can please say a prayer for Nicky, so he can wake up and make a good recovery,' Mr Tadros posted on social media.

'He is in an induced coma on a life support machine to help him breath (sic).

'He is in a very serious and critical state. I'm asking for all your prayers to bring my little man back to me.'

The helicopter, which had seven people aboard, fell from a height and slammed into a sandbar after its main rotor struck the windscreen of a second helicopter, and detached.

Nicholas and Vanessa Tadros hold up their Sea World helicopter pass on Monday (pictured)

Also on that helicopter were Winnie de Silva, 33, and her nine-year-old son Leon.

Her husband Neil had taken the Geelong family on a quick holiday to the Gold Coast and decided to shout the pair a 10-minute flight

Ms de Silva is in Gold Coast University hospital with two broken legs, a broken right shoulder, a broken collarbone and a damaged left knee.

Leon - who only moved to Australia from Kenya a year ago to be with his mother - is in a more serious condition as he suffered a fractured skull, brain trauma and facial injuries in the crash. 

He is being treated in Queensland Children's Hospital in Brisbane and is now in an induced coma.

Winnie de Silva, 33, moved to Australia from Kenya and her son Leon, 9, (pictured together) joined her just a year ago

The second helicopter's cockpit was severely damaged, but 52-year-old pilot Michael James managed to land on the sandbar, saving the lives of his five passengers, four of whom suffered glass shrapnel injuries.

The passengers included a West Australian woman and two New Zealand couples in their 40s who were travelling together.

A second video shows Mr James, after having successfully landed the helicopter, working to free his passengers from the wreck by cutting their seatbelts with a knife and helping them to their feet. 

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is probing the crash, focusing on what was happening inside the two cockpits at the point of impact.

Chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said Mr Jenkinson's aircraft had taken off and was in the air for less than 20 seconds before its main rotor blades hit the cockpit of the second helicopter. 

After the pilot managed to stablise and land his helicopter, footage shows him pulling his passengers from the wreck (pictured) 

The two Sea World helicopters clipped each other in front of hundreds of holidaymakers on the Gold Coast

Ash Jenkinson, the helicopter pilot who died in the crash, was originally from Birmingham but lived in the Gold Coast area.

A friend said the pilot was a 'silent hero and gentle giant' who 'would have done everything to bring the helicopter down safely'.

'He was a top guy with so much experience. He's flown in all sorts of terrain and environments, we're completely shocked,' Ritchie Gregg said.

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Source: www.dailymail.co.uk
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