Investigation launched after helicopter crash sees four dead
Investigators have begun searching for answers about the fatal helicopter crash that left four people dead on the Gold Coast.
After a mid-air collision on Monday afternoon, the distressing scene played out in front of thousands of guests visiting Sea World, and the busy Gold Coast Broadwater for the New Year’s Day public holiday.
Initial reports suggest one helicopter was taking off as the other was landing when they collided.
“One was trying to leave and they both smacked into each other,” a witness told 7NEWS.
“Then they broth dropped and one of the helicopters actually lit on fire.”
Another witness described the explosion that followed the collision.
“We just looked up and they instantly hit each other,” she said.
“Blades went flying, flames everywhere.”
One helicopter fell upside down into a sandbank at the water’s edge scattering debris over a wide area around 2 pm on Monday near the popular theme park.
On board, four people were killed and three passengers were critically injured.
The second aircraft landed safely, but the windscreen was damaged. Queensland Ambulance supervisor Jayney Shearman said another six patients were treated primarily for glass shrapnel wounds.
He said the “airframe has crashed and it was upside down”, and its front was severely damaged.
The helicopter had no nose and no windscreen, after both were blasted off in the moment of impact and those below the crash could only run from the blades of the first helicopter spearing into the sand.
Tourists became rescuers, as people on jet skis and in boats rushed to help the victims at the small sandbank before paramedics and police arrived on the scene.
They were confronted with a “significant incident”, Queensland Police Acting Inspector Gary Worrell said.
Members of the public rendered immediate assistance, working alongside police to remove people - including at least one child - from the wreckage as it burst into flames.
They commenced first aid and tried to get those people to safety from the airframe that was upside down, Worrell said.
Jayney Shearman from QAS said they attended to 13 people from both helicopters.
“There were three critical patients that were treated and there were six with minor injuries that were all transported through to hospital,” she said.
“The minor injuries were mainly glass shrapnel that had come from the impact.”
Shearman said there were a number of critical injuries, “what we call multi-system trauma which means that there was a lot of impact to the body”.
In the initial stages, she said, it was very important to have some basic life support which was being conducted by first-aiders.
Two people, a woman and a child were taken to Gold Coast University Hospital while another child was airlifted to Queensland Children’s Hospital.
Six other people are at Robina Hospital being assessed in the emergency department and it is understood some may be eventually transferred to Gold Coast University Hospital.
Sea World’s chief pilot Ashley Jenkinson has been confirmed as one of the victims. He leaves behind a wife and a young son.
Images: 7News