Matt Wright trial: Chopper crash pilot’s brother rejects allegation his family concocted croc-wrangler claims

Chopper crash pilot Sebastian Robinson was seen using cocaine just once by his brother — at a bucks party on Matt Wright’s boat, the jury in a celebrity croc-wrangler’s trial has heard.

Zaccarie Chellingworth on Tuesday gave evidence at Mr Wright’s Northern Territory Supreme Court trial, where he is fighting three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice in relation to the investigation into a fatal chopper crash.

Mr Robinson, 32, was flying a Robinson R44 owned and operated by Mr Wright’s company Helibrook when it crashed during a crocodile egg collecting mission at West Arnhem Land in February 2022.

It left the pilot paraplegic and killed Netflix star Chris Wilson who was slinging beneath the chopper.

The court heard that Mr Robinson lived in a cottage on the sprawling Darwin property of Wild Harvest NT director Mick Burns, who had contracted the egg collecting mission. Mr Robinson’s hangar is also on Mr Burns’ property.

Mr Chellingworth told the jury that after the crash, Mr Burns informed him and his mother that Mr Wright had “collected the logbooks” from Mr Robinson’s home.

“We’d become aware, Mick Burns had notified myself and mum and that Matt Wright had collected the logbooks from Mick Burns’ residence, which is where Sebastian lives.,” he said.

“And he had given them to a pilot named Jock Purcell and Jock Purcell held onto them.”

Mr Chellingworth said that after being told this, he went to Mr Purcell’s home – about a week after the crash – to retrieve the logbooks.

He said Mr Purcell was not home when he arrived but his wife handed them over.

“With certainty, it was Sebastian’s aircraft logbook,” he said.

“It was in between A4 and A5 size, blue backing, gold writing.

“Any hours that Sebastian flies, he logs it in that logbook.”

Soon after, Mr Chellingworth visited his brother at the Royal Brisbane Hospital, where Mr Wright is accused of pressuring Mr Robinson to falsify flight records.

“He was heavily medicated due to his pain,” he told the jury.

“You had to pick your times when you could talk to Sebastian, because he was in and out.”

Mr Chellingworth, a Licensed Aircraft Maintenance Engineer for CareFlight, said he was in his brother’s private hospital room when Mr Wright arrived at the hospital with his wife Kaia and their child on March 11, 2022.

He told the court that he stayed in the hospital room throughout the Wrights’ hour-long visit.

“He (Mr Wright) was carrying some type of documentation,” Mr Chellingworth said.

“Matt Wright had said to Sebastian, ‘I need you to take 15 to 20 hours off IDW’, the crashed helicopter ‘and put them onto ZXZ’, Sebastian’s helicopter because there were hours unaccounted for.

“Sebastian responded and he said ‘no’.”

Mr Chellingworth said Mr Robinson’s phone was sitting next to his bed.

“Matt Wright had asked Sebastian to delete any texts, videos, notes or phone calls in relation to the crash,” he said.

“No one was holding the phone.

“Sebastian disagreed.”

Under cross examination from David Edwardson KC, Mr Chellingworth said the rest of the conversation was “general chit-chat about the helicopter and the accident”.

“MR hours, phone evidence, that’s all I can recall,” he said.

Mr Edwardson asked Mr Chellingworth if he knew his brother used cocaine.

“I was aware of my brother’s cocaine use . . . that it was few and far between,” he said

“He did not take drugs on a regular occasion. I’m his big brother so I know.”

Mr Edwardson pressed the witness reveal the time and place he had seen Mr Robinson consume cocaine.

“It was my buck’s party on Matt Wright’s boat, CAT5,” he said, before adding that his bucks party was in 2016.

Mr Edwardson accused Mr Chellingworth of conspiring with his family to invent claims against Mr Wright because they were “concerned that (Mr Robinson) might be held responsible for this crash”.

“And I’m suggesting to you that that’s the reason why you and your mother and your brother had manufactured these allegations against Mr Wright?,” the lawyer asked.

“Manufactured the allegation of him asking to move hours from IDW to ZXZ?”

Mr Chellingworth replied, “It’s not a lie” that Mr Wright asked his brother to move the flight hours.

“I’m telling the truth,” he said.

“He asked my brother to delete messages.”

Mr Edwardson put it to the witness that Mr Wright was in fact trying to help Mr Robinson.

“He was trying to help your brother clean up a mess that he’d left behind?” he asked.

“And that’s the truth of the matter, isn’t it? And you’ve got together with your brother and your mother and you’ve made false allegations against him about these matters?”

Mr Chellingworth rejected the propositions, saying “no” to all of them and “that’s a lie”.

The trial, before Acting Justice Alan Blow, is expected to finish hearing evidence on Thursday.