{"id":148097,"date":"2025-08-15T15:12:17","date_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:12:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/148097\/"},"modified":"2025-08-15T15:12:17","modified_gmt":"2025-08-15T15:12:17","slug":"matt-wright-hostile-after-mother-of-a-monsoon-ended-crocodile-egg-collecting-trip-jury-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/148097\/","title":{"rendered":"Matt Wright ‘hostile’ after ‘mother of a monsoon’ ended crocodile egg-collecting trip, jury hears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt Wright became “hostile and abusive” after his helicopter pilots pulled out of a crocodile egg-collecting run due to safety concerns a month before a fatal crash, a court has heard.<\/p>\n

The Netflix star has pleaded not guilty in the Northern Territory Supreme Court to three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice in the aftermath of the accident on February 28, 2022.<\/p>\n

Catch up on today’s live coverage of Matt Wright’s Supreme Court trial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The crash killed Mr Wright’s close friend and co-star, Chris “Willow” Wilson, and seriously injured pilot Sebastian Robinson.<\/p>\n

Mr Wright’s charges do not relate to the cause of the crash but instead his alleged attempts to frustrate the ensuing investigation as a cover for shoddy record-keeping in his helicopter business.<\/p>\n

On Friday, Mr Robinson, the man piloting the helicopter at the time, concluded his evidence in the trial by telling jurors about an incident on Australia Day the previous month.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Sebastian Robinson described an abusive message from Matt Wright after aborting a trip due to dangerous weather. (ABC News: Mary Franklin)<\/p>\n

Mr Robinson said he was out collecting eggs at the mouth of the Daly River with Mr Wilson slung below his aircraft, along with another chopper piloted by Michael Burbidge, when “a very big storm came in and it became very dangerous”.<\/p>\n

“I slung Willow out on the nest and then we decided that it was too dangerous to continue because the storm was huge,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I got onto the radio to Mick Burbidge, he also confirmed that it was too big and we both mutually agreed that we should head back to town.<\/p>\n

“It was a mother of a monsoon, it was across the whole horizon, coming at us very fast.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mr Wilson said the method of collecting eggs by helicopter with another person slung 100 feet below was “risky” at the best of times, but if the storm had moved over, it would have been “catastrophic”.<\/p>\n

“Obviously, if you’re in heavy rain, you’ve got no visual reference, so you can’t see where you’re going and [where] the ground is, anything like that,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Michael Burbidge (centre) testified in Matt Wright’s trial last week. (ABC News: Dane Hirst)<\/p>\n

“It has an effect on the helicopter, on the blades, you can’t see, you have risk of electrical interference, lightning hitting the helicopter.”<\/p>\n

For the person being dropped on the nest below, Mr Robinson said it would be “very unsafe”.<\/p>\n

“As a pilot above in the heavy rain, you can’t see what is happening underneath you, you’re getting soaking wet with your head out the door, trying to see down and see what’s going on,” he said.<\/p>\n

“[The other person has] limited visibility, you can’t see crocodiles, soaking wet and rain, cold, not being able to communicate with the pilot.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Chris “Willow” Wilson was killed in the 2022 chopper crash in the NT’s remote Arnhem Land. (Supplied)<\/p>\n

Mr Robinson said after the crews returned, they had all gone to the Noonamah Tavern “for Australia Day to watch the ute run and have a beer and a feed” when Mr Wright called him, “very hostile and abusive”.<\/p>\n

“Best I can recall, he said, ‘What the f*** are youse doing back? Egg collecting’s not meant to be f***ing easy, you sit out there, you wait the weather out, you f***in’ deal with it and f***in’ get on with the job,'” he said.<\/p>\n

The court has previously heard Mr Wright was unable to join egg-collecting missions on Aboriginal land at the time due to restrictions in place for people who were unvaccinated against COVID-19.<\/p>\n

“I told him to get f***ed, get vaccinated and fly his own helicopter,” Mr Robinson said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jason Gullaci SC is the Crown prosecutor in the Matt Wright trial. (ABC News: Marcus Kennedy)<\/p>\n

Mr Robinson said while he had “already taken steps” to leave Mr Wright’s company, Helibrook, and branch out on his own at the time, the incident had reinforced that decision.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t like the operation at Helibrook and I wanted to get away,” he said.<\/p>\n

Pilot in ‘crosshairs’ of fatal chopper crash denies lying to police<\/a><\/p>\n

Fatal crash pilot Sebastian Robinson has denied lying to police under cross-examination in Matt Wright’s criminal trial.<\/p>\n

Crown prosecutor Jason Gullaci SC also read from a text message sent by Mr Wright the following day and later downloaded from Mr Robinson’s phone.<\/p>\n

“Sebby, sorry for blowing up yesterday, I know you boys have been going hard and doing a great job, very appreciative of that,” he wrote.<\/p>\n

“When I heard everyone pulled the pin at 10am and went to the pub, I was pretty pissed and shouldn’t have blown up at you and Willow.<\/p>\n

“Thanks for having my back this year and getting the job done.”<\/p>\n

The trial continues in Darwin on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Matt Wright became “hostile and abusive” after his helicopter pilots pulled out of a crocodile egg-collecting run due…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":148098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[7285,4740,77094,4903,8140,81993,87353,25175,34161,13155,75302,50,13264,81994,87352,81999,278,12433],"class_list":{"0":"post-148097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-accident","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-chopper","11":"tag-crash","12":"tag-criminal","13":"tag-crocodile-wrangler","14":"tag-cross-examination","15":"tag-evidence","16":"tag-helicopter","17":"tag-jury","18":"tag-matt-wright","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-northern-territory","21":"tag-outback-wrangler","22":"tag-perverting-course-of-justice","23":"tag-sebastian-robinson","24":"tag-supreme-court","25":"tag-trial"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115033430026063248","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}