Varning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
TV’s famous crocodile wrangler, Matt Wright, is at the centre of a tragic outback crime. After a fatal helicopter crash killed his co-star, shocking accusations of an attempted cover-up emerged.
Did a national hero try to hide the truth?
The king River region of west arnhem land,here the vast emptiness of Australia’s Northern Territory meets the ocean and crocodiles rules the land
But from the air, teams of egg collectors descend in extremly daring missions , these precious eggs are snatched,hatched and harvested.
Crocodile skin an exotic leather coveted by luxury fashion brands,like Louis Vuitton and Hermes.
But 3 years ago,this high stakes,high reward operation went horribly wrong.
A horrific crash left one dead and another paralyzed.
And put celebrity croc Wrangler Matt Wright on trial.
Over 5 weeks , we hear about the lying,the drugs, and the attempted cover-ups.
As this explosive trial exposes ,what one manwill do to protect his empire when everythin is on the line.
Matt Wright cut his teeth in the bush,but his career really took off when he learned to fly, traveling over vast bush land, all to conquer Australia’s most dangerous predator.
Wright and his co- stars beamed the beauty and the danger of the Northen territory around the globe.
One of those co- stars, his best mate, Chris Willow Wilson
Matt Wright parlayed global attention into a toursim empire,transporting visitors to the Territor’s most beautiful and rugged landscapes.
they wanted to see the beauty and the terror of the outback up close to be guided by an authentic aussie crocodile wrangler like they’d seen in the movies
And that’s what they got.
even on a regular day, slinging underneath a helicopter can be dangerous work…
But on the 28 th of february 2022 ,the aircraft’s engine failed and Willow’s harness was cut loose as it dropped out of the sky.
Matt wright wasn’t in the helicopter, but he lost his best friend.
Over the next 3 years,the bond once forged between Chris Wilson , the family he left behind, and Matt Wright would break beyond repair.
Wright took to social media in 2023 after aviation investigators released a report into what likely brought the chopper down.
In a video, he appeared to be on the defense.
whatever accusations or rumors there were would ultimately be tested in the Territor’s highest court.
Investigators had been trying to get answers for friends,family members and territorians devastated by the crash,they suspected Matt Wright was trying to stand in their way,the outback wrangler faces legal rekoning,he’s not accused of causing the 2022 crash,he’s accused of attempting to pervert the course of justice in its aftermath,the man famed for turbocharging top-end tourism could go to prison.
the first accusation after rushing to the scene of the crash, he lied to police about what he saw there.
Charge 1:Wright allegedly lied to police about the fuel.
This is the statement Matt gave to police 3 days after the crash.
He tells police the shopper had fuel left in it.
But that’s completely different to what he said to a mate months later during a phone call months later during a phone call police had secretly tapped.
I didn’t see fuckin’ any fuel in the tank, zero,fuck mate,i don’t know , but there was fuckin’ zero there…”
How much fuel was in the downed shopper was critical question for investigators.
The helicopter was likely not refueled at a fuel depot about 3/ 4 of the way between Darwin and the crocodile egg collecting area.
Matt Wright’s lawyers said he was doing his best to assist the police, that he didn’t intentionally deceive them,he was simply rattled by the death of his friend just days earlier.
But prosecutor jason Gullaci argued Wright lied to police to try and protect himself.
Nothing to see here ,don’t need to worry about it It’s not like it ran out of fuel”/ Gullaci .
As he gave his statement, this outback wrangler had a multi- million dollar empire to protect.
It’s taken a lot of years to get where i am and i’m not gonna let them take that away “/ Matt,december -22 phone call.
Wright couldn’t afford investigators disvoering the history of recordikeeping at his chopper company Helybrook.
The jury heard Hellibrook was a part of a broken culture of avation safety in the NT, operators deliberately flout the rules by disconnnecting the chopper’s HOBS meter .the part of the aircraft that records flight time.
By unhooking it ,they can underrecord how many hours they’ve flown, avoiding expensive services to keep their helicopters in the air for longer.
In it’s investigation into the crash,the Australian Transport safety buteau.
found hellibrook was plagued by these bad habits. although they did not contribute to the crash itself.
The operator’s histroy of non -compliance with regulatory requirements maintenance standards, and accurate recordkeeping,increase the risk level for much of their aviation activities.
In a bugged conversation with a friend recorded months after the crash,prosecutors put it to the jury that Matt Wright was worried about the pressure investigators were putting on his mates who would crack .
All this while Seb Robinson ,the pilot, paralyzed in the crash, was navigating a new way of life.
reliving the crash and its impact, Seb Robinson held back tears, he’ll never walk again and suffers from a traumatic brain injury.
The jury heard Seb Robinson was the head of aircraft maintenance at wright’s chopper company Helibrook,but only on paper.
Matt controlled all aspects of his aircraft regarding maintenance sheduling , i was never paid to fill the role,it was just a name put forward to CASA so Helibrook could operate.”
Robinson told the jury it was very common at Helibrook for a shopper’s HOBS meter to be disconnected,the reason- when a helicopter hits a certain threshold of hours flown ,it must go in for an expensive and extensive service.
When asked if people followed Wright’s directions around disconnecting the HOBS and not logging flight hours, Seb told the jury,” absolutely.” everyone looked at Matt as an Idol,if he said jump,they’d say how high?” agreeing the celebrity croc wrangler had an aura about him.
Everyone knew it was happening , everyone was okay to take these risks over and over again ,because there was no enforcement,there was no oversight and they were cowboys doing what they wanted.
But Robinson knew when to say enough is enough as far as safety was concerned.
The prosecutor stood up to ask more questions, some about an incident on Australia day in 2022, around a month before the crash that killed Chris Willow Wilson , an event Seb told the Jury contributed to him wanting to leave Matt Wright’s chopper business.
Telling the jury he was on an egg collecting mission with Willow and other crews when he saw a storm.
It was huge, it was a ” mother of a monsoon”/Seb.
deciding it was too dangerous to continue,he and another pilot called the mission off,Robinson telling the jury this is what Wright said to him on the phone later that day.
What the fuck are youse doing back? egg collectings is not meant to be fucking easy,you sit out there , you wait the weather out , you fucking deal witit and fucking get on with the job”
That certainly made the front page of the NT News.
Wright and Robinson patched things up and the young pilot returned to the cockpit a handful more times before one flight altered his life forever.
After Seb Robinson as airlifted from the crash site, doctors in Darwin told his family that he was unlikely to make it through the night,but he did ,he was moved into state to a brisbane hospital.
it’s here where Matt Wright was said to have committed his 2nd crime of attempting to pervert the course of justice in the aftermath of the crash.
Wright asked him to transfer flight hours from the downed chopper known as IDW to Seb’s own chopper ZXZ.
The prosecutor argued this would be ruse with designed to cover up the underrecording of IDW’s flight times.
And effectively his uncle starts secretely recording right as he talks to him.
That was a recording of Matt,organizing and moving around hoursand discussing what needed to change to protect himself in this recoding of hours,Seb ultimately refused to move the hours.
but Matt did delete items from Chris phone.
The prosecutor argued Matt Wright motivations was simple” talking about protecting your own as” alleging Wright wanted to hide what was going on at his chopper business.
” don’t connect the Hobbs meter, don’t record your hours, don’t fill in the MR, extend the lfie of the helicopter”/ Gullaci.
Seb Robinson was a key witness in the case against his former boss and Wright’s defense lawyers tried to cast doubt over the young pilot’s credibility
So, Seb Robinson’s past cocain use,occasional cocaine use , was very heavily discussed because this is a person who had his past 8 years of messages unvocered.
Many of the text messages read out in court were in some way about cocaine . like this message in 2018.”you getting more coke?” then from Seb in 2019,footy players in town and awnt bags”.
another time, this exchange.
Clearly, like friends joking and joshing with each other suddenly became this extensive cross -examination of this young man who suddenly had to answer, “no , i did not snort cocaine out of my bosse’s ass.
Like suddenly quite great headlines for media reporters.but obviously going nowhere in the actual case.
the third and the final charge against Matt Wright hinged on a bugged conversation between him and a mate months after the crash and the accusation .
He asked for the drowned chopper’s maintaince release to be destroyed.
The third charges is the most contentious,it was a secret recording of Matt Wright in a drunken midnight conversation with his mate jai tomlinson
And they’re alleged they talked about the original maintenance release for the crash chopper, this is a document that outlines flight hours ,flight times, where and when they were taken and who was piloting them.
And it was alleged that the recordings of very bad quality captured Wright saying “just torture, just burn the car”.
In its response , the defense asked the jury to keep an open mind, telling them the audio recording is extremely poor, also reminding them the originial maintenance release was made available to authorities.
It was photographed by an investigator and Wright’s wife,sent a scanned copy to police.
During his closing arguments,Matt Wright’s defense lawyer remainded the jurors.” there are no winners in a case like this.
Wright lost his best mate ,willow, that day. an egg collection mission that went horrible wrong ,rendering pilot Seb Robisnon, a paraplegic.
a group of men ,who were thick as thieves without a carea in the world,doing real Northen Territoy outback stuff,will never be the same again”/ Edwardson.”
His barristister told the 12 jury members”Wright has already suffered enough”
Gone from the face of Darwin tourism to now sitting in the dock with his fate in your hands”
People have picked sides between what they see is the Wilson and Robinsons who were in the crash and Wright , their boss, who they believed ,should have been there for them .
The jury found Matt Wright twice atempted to pervert the course of justice.
charge 1
that he lied to police about how much fuel was left in the aircraft on this he was found GUILTY.
Charge 2
Wright asked Seb Robinson to doctor flight records, also GUILTY.
Charge 3
Wright asked a friend to torch the crshed chopper’s maintenance record
NO VERDICT.
ultimately ,the jury couldn’t decide and were hopelessly deadlocked on wheter or not that was actually said or if that constitutes an attempt to pervert the court of justice,because of course, to mates having a late night drunken conversation might not constitute this conspiracy plot .
This TV star is used to fronting the cameras,he’s made a career out of it.
But throughout the trial , Matt Wright spoke only through his lawyers, avoiding any question that could jeopardize his case.
That case is now over,and on judgement day,he finally faced the media.
This time, not as the Outback Wrangler ,but as a criminal.
Matt Wright was granted bail,but his case retuns to court in early October for a hearing about his sentensing for attempting to pervert the course of justice he could go to prisonfor up to 15 years.
But with an appeal already underway,this drawn out legal saga is no closer to its resolution.