The four people who died in the devastating helicopter crash on the Gold Coast have been identified.
Sydney mother Vanessa Tadros died in the crash while her 10-year-old son survived the collision and is fighting for life in hospital.
British nationals Ron and Diane Hughes, 65 and 57, who were celebrating their recent wedding, were also killed.
The helicopter’s pilot Ash Jenkinson, 40, who’d been working at Sea World since 2019 and mentored friends in the aviation industry, was the first to be identified as having died in the crash.
As well as Tadros’ son, another mother Winnie De Silva and her nine-year-old son Leon survived the crash and remain in hospital.
Jenkinson’s friend Andy Taylor paid tribute to his friend, sharing the important work he did in helping flood victims across the Northern Rivers in 2022.
“It was a team effort with a group of our mates and Ash jumped on board straight away when he heard what we were doing,” Taylor told Today.
“And because of him, we could rescue a lot of people, get a lot of food and supplies to people that otherwise would have never got them.”
“It was really humbling to know that he leaves a bit of a legacy, especially with the guys and everyone in the Northern Rivers area. It was a very special thing for him to do.”
Taylor said he couldn’t imagine what Jenkinson’s Helensvale-based family, including his one-year-old son, were going through.
“He was always there,” Taylor said.
“Like I said before, he was a big guy with a big heart and a true legend that’s certainly left a bit of a legacy in the aviation space.”
Investigations have begun into the cause of the crash, with Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell saying it was too early to determine an exact cause of the tragic accident.
“We have a reasonable understanding of what the two helicopters were doing, as I said, in those critical phases of flight, but exactly why this occurred, what was the range of visibility from both the pilots, what was happening inside the cabins at the time, they’re the things that will help us piece together, potentially what may have been a contributing factor here,” Mitchell said.
“But it’s still very early stages in the investigation to start speculating.”
Image credits: Nine News
This article first appeared on Over60.