Pilot denies making up claims against Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright, helicopter crash trial hears
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Version 0 of 1. Sebastian Robinson accused of concocting a story that Wright had asked him to manipulate helicopter flying hours Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A helicopter crash pilot has been accused of concocting “absolute falsehoods” that reality TV star Matt Wright tried to get him to falsify flying hours and deleted phone messages, a jury has heard. Sebastian Robinson was left a paraplegic after the crash in February 2022 that killed Outback Wrangler co-star Chris “Willow” Wilson in Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. Robinson is giving evidence in the supreme court in Darwin at the trial of Wright, who has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice. Prosecutors allege Wright was worried crash investigators would discover flight-time meters were disconnected regularly to extend flying hours beyond official thresholds and paperwork was falsified. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Wilson fell to the ground from a sling beneath the chopper while collecting crocodile eggs in remote swampland. The aircraft then crashed, seriously injuring Robinson, who is giving evidence by video link from his wheelchair. In court on Friday the 32-year-old was accused by senior defence counsel David Edwardson KC of concocting a story that Wright had asked him to manipulate helicopter flying hours. Robinson has said Wright asked him at his hospital bedside in Brisbane 11 days after the crash to transfer flying hours from the crashed chopper IDW on to Robinson’s ZXZ machine, something he declined to do. Edwardson put it to Robinson the conversation about manipulating flying hours never happened. But Robinson said he remembered Wright saying something along the lines of “we might have to put some hours across on to ZXZ”. Edwardson said Wright, as chief pilot of his company Helibrook, had the responsibility to make sure Robinson’s flight paperwork was up to speed, when he was “hopelessly” behind. Robinson has also told the court he remembered at the hospital his phone was in Wright’s hand and he was deleting items from it, which he believed to be helicopter flight times from egg collecting. But Edwardson put it to Robinson that was an “absolute falsehood” because Wright never touched his phone and did not delete any messages. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion Robinson said he disagreed. The jury was shown images of phone messages extracted by police from Robinson’s phone displaying a list of flying hours sent to Wright between December 2021 and the crash on February 2022. Robinson has previously admitted cocaine use and supply but has told the court he never flew helicopters while high. He has vigorously denied the helicopter crashed because it ran out of fuel. The charges against Wright do not relate to the cause of the accident and the prosecution does not allege he is responsible for either the crash, Wilson’s death or Robinson’s injuries. The trial continues. |