A bush pilot has told a court he disposed of reality TV star Chris “Willow” Wilson’s mobile phone after a fatal helicopter crash, saying the partner “doesn’t need to see what’s on the phone”. Michael Burbidge, pilot and director of Remote Helicopters, gave evidence at the trial of Matt Wright, star of Outback Wrangler, in the Supreme Court in Darwin on Friday.
The Crown alleges Wright wanted to check if the Hobbs flight-hour recording meter was disconnected behind the helicopter’s console. Prosecutors claim Wright and his pilots regularly disconnected the meters to extend flying hours beyond official limits and falsified logbooks and maintenance releases. Wilson was collecting crocodile eggs in a sling under a helicopter when it crashed on 28 February 2022, killing him and injuring pilot Sebastian Robinson, who is now a paraplegic.
Wright has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice. The Crown says Wright was concerned crash investigators would uncover the issue with flying hours, but stresses the charges do not relate to the cause of the accident. Burbidge, first at the crash scene, said he found Wilson dead and Robinson critically injured. He later received Wilson’s phone from then-police officer Neil Mellon and told him: “Dani doesn’t need to see what’s on the phone,” referring to Wilson’s partner.
Burbidge said he was later charged and fined for disposing of the phone after pleading guilty. He denied inspecting the crashed helicopter’s fuel tank or detaching the console with Wright, and said he had no recollection of disconnecting Hobbs meters, though he had heard of the practice. The court heard a covertly recorded phone call in which Burbidge told Wright about a rumour of “shit written” in a logbook saying “clock found disconnected again”.
Defence barrister David Edwardson KC told the jury Wright had engaged in disconnecting Hobbs meters, calling it common practice in the NT helicopter industry, but “emphatically denied” it was a motive for alleged offending. Egg collector Timothy Luck testified he had flown in Wright’s helicopters with disconnected meters and once saw Robinson working under a dashboard to disconnect one as Wilson pretended to photograph him. Luck rejected claims the helicopter ran out of fuel, saying he had filled it “to the top about 20 minutes prior”.
The trial before Acting Justice Allan Blow is expected to last up to five weeks.
