At approximately 2pm on Monday 02 January 2023, two Eurocopter EC130s collided mid-air and crashed near Sea World theme park in the city of Gold Coast, Queensland. Tragically, as a result of the collision four people were killed and eight others injured (three critically).
The two helicopters collided mid-air whilst one attempted to land as the other departed from a helipad at Sea World.
Our current understanding is that the departing helicopter struck the arriving helicopter, separating the departing helicopter’s main rotor blades and causing it to crash on a nearby sandbar, killing the pilot and three others on board and leaving three in critical condition. The arriving helicopter was fortunately able to stabilise after the collision and the pilot successfully performed an emergency landing on the same sandbar. All six on board this aircraft survived without critical injury.
In the following days, Keith Tonkin was interviewed by local and national media outlets to discuss the incident and provide expert insight into the tragedy.
Links to the interviews are available below:
- 7 News - One of Australia's leading aviation experts Keith Tonkin discusses fatal helicopter crash - Tuesday 03 January 2023
- Sky News - Second helicopter pilot did an ‘amazing’ job at landing under circumstances - Tuesday 03 January 2023
- Sunrise Channel 7 - Gold Coast helicopter crash: investigation underway into what went wrong - Wednesday 04 January 2023
- Sky News - Lots of ‘information’ required for helicopter crash investigation - Wednesday 04 January 2023
- Sky News - Aviation expert Keith Tonkin weighs in on theory passengers may have blocked pilot's view of second Sea World helicopter - Wednesday 04 January 2023
- ABC News - Hours of video footage to be reviewed as part of fatal Gold Coast helicopter crash investigation - Wednesday 04 January 2023
- Daily Mail - The 'extraordinary quirk of fate' that seems to have caused deadly Sea World helicopter crash - aviation expert highlights two key details in footage of doomed chopper's final moments - Wednesday 04 January 2023
- 7 News - New images released almost a week after four people died in the Sea World chopper crash - Sunday 08 January 2023
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Tags: Aviation, Helicopter, Collision, Media, Advice
