Helicopter pilot crashes in bid to look at crocodile

AN excited helicopter pilot crashed after swooping too low to look at a crocodile he had just spotted.

He escaped with cuts and bruises but his passenger suffered critical injuries in the accident on a remote beach near Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory.

The pilot told rescuers he was flying along the beach from where the pair had camped when he turned to observe a crocodile and then crashed. After starting the turn the next thing he remembered was being upside down in the mud.

The pilot dragged his passenger to the safety of the shore, then buried the man in the sand up to his neck in a bid to prevent him from developing hypothermia.

A CareFlight rescue helicopter and doctor located the crash in the dark and flew the passenger and pilot to hospital in Darwin.

The two men were camping at a remote spot near Dundee Beach, 50 kilometres south-west of Darwin, over the weekend when they decided to take a flight in their helicopter.

“They decided to go for a flight in a single engine two-seater Robinson – the sort of thing used for cattle mustering,” said NRMA CareFlight director IanBadham. “It was just on dark and they were flying along the beach.”

The helicopter crashed 100 metres from the shore, where there were many crocodiles, Badham said.

“[The pilot] said he then got himself out of the wreckage and found hispassenger – aged in his 50s – badly injured andsemi-conscious. Where they came down was mudflats 100 metres from the beach, where there are crocodiles.

“So he’s dragged his injured guy to the beach and used the satellite phone to alert emergency authorities,” he added.

Believing help would not arrive until the next morning, the pilot decided to bury his passenger in the sand up to his neck to try to stop him getting hypothermia, Badham said.

“It certainly does get chilly overnight and with no protection... it’s an unusual idea but there’s some sense in it,” he said.

The passenger suffered chest and lung injuries and a fractured arm, Badham said, adding that the pilot only suffered minor injuries and severe shock.

They were taken to Royal Darwin Hospital.