Sea World helicopter crash: Video shows cockpit and pilot pulling survivors from wreckage

Video from the cockpit of one of the helicopters involved in the Sea World tragedy shows a passenger warning the pilot of the other plane approaching.

Footage obtained by Seven News shows the interior of the higher-positioned helicopter that flew in to land – which the pilot was able to stabilize after the collision, allowing everyone on board to escape with minor injuries.

A passenger in the back seat repeatedly pats the pilot on the right shoulder with increasing urgency.

Four people in the lower helicopter were killed after it crashed into the sandbar on the Gold Coast Broadwater on Monday – pilot Ash Jenkinson, 40, British nationals Ron and Diane Hughes, 65 and 57, and Sydney’s mother Vanessa Tadros, 36.

Footage shows the interior of the higher-positioned helicopter before the collision (pictured)

Ms Tadros’ heartbroken husband Simon has asked for prayers for the couple’s son Nicholas, who has undergone multiple surgeries at the hospital since the accident.

“I ask that everyone please say a prayer for Nicky so he can wake up and have a good recovery,” Mr Tadros posted on social media.

“He’s in an induced coma on a life support machine that’s helping him breathe (sic).

“He is in a very serious and critical condition. I ask for all your prayers to bring my little man back to me.’

The helicopter, with seven people on board, fell from a great height and crashed into a sandbar after its main rotor struck the windshield of a second helicopter and became detached.

Nicholas and Vanessa Tadros hold up their Sea World helicopter pass on Monday (pictured)

Winnie de Silva, 33, and her nine-year-old son Leon were also in the helicopter.

Her husband Neil had taken the Geelong family on a short vacation to the Gold Coast and decided to call the couple a 10 minute flight

Ms de Silva is hospitalized at Gold Coast University with two broken legs, a broken right shoulder, a broken collarbone and a damaged left knee.

Leon – who moved to Australia from Kenya to be with his mother just a year ago – is in a more serious condition, having sustained a fractured skull, brain trauma and facial injuries in the accident.

He is being treated at Queensland Children’s Hospital in Brisbane and is now in an induced coma.

The cockpit of the second helicopter was badly damaged, but 52-year-old pilot Michael James managed to land on the sandbar and saved the lives of his five passengers, four of whom suffered shattered glass injuries.

Passengers included a Western Australian woman and two New Zealand couples in their 40s who were traveling together.

A second video shows Mr James, after successfully landing the helicopter, working to extricate his passengers from the wreckage, cutting their seat belts with a knife and helping them to their feet.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating the crash, focusing on what was happening in the two cockpits at the time of impact.

Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said Mr Jenkinson’s plane took off and was airborne less than 20 seconds before its main rotor blades struck the cockpit of the second helicopter.

After the pilot managed to stabilize his helicopter and land, footage shows him pulling his passengers out of the wreckage (pictured).

Sea World’s two helicopters collided in front of hundreds of holidaymakers on the Gold Coast

Ash Jenkinson, the helicopter pilot who died in the crash, was originally from Birmingham but lived in the Gold Coast area.

A friend said the pilot was a “quiet hero and gentle giant” who “would have done anything to bring the helicopter down safely”.

“He was a top guy with so much experience. He’s flown all sorts of terrain and environments, we’re completely shocked,” said Ritchie Gregg.