Fatal flight: drug use, pilot stress probed at inquest
Rex Martinich |
Beauty therapist Kosha Richardson-Johnson first knew her fiance’s workplace stress had really escalated when she found him sitting in a wardrobe and crying.
Her partner, helicopter pilot Ashley Jenkinson, had forgotten to buy groceries on the way home, triggering what she described as a “breakdown”.
“I asked him ‘did you get the bread and milk’? He said ‘no, I didn’t’,” Ms Richardson-Johnson said.
“Then I found him in the wardrobe crying.
“I said to him ‘what’s wrong?’ That’s when he had a breakdown and started crying and saying ‘you don’t understand how much pressure I’m under’.”
Weeks later, Mr Jenkinson would leave for his final day at work as a pilot for Sea World Helicopters.
He was one of four people killed in one of Australia’s worst air disasters when his chopper collided with another outside the Gold Coast theme park on January 2, 2023.
Just 25 seconds after take-off, his helicopter entered free-fall for 40 metres and crashed on a sandbar.
An autopsy revealed his body contained cocaine metabolites, the chemical remnants of the drug after it passed through the liver and kidneys.
Mr Jenkinson’s stress and sleep levels along with his cocaine and alcohol use were the focus of much of the testimony during the second week of an inquest into the tragedy.
Ms Richardson-Johnson had multiple conversations about work stress with her fiance in the weeks before his emotional outburst.
She thought about asking her fiance’s boss to give him a day off after the cupboard incident but decided against interfering.
Mr Jenkinson was the chief pilot for Sea World’s joy-flight helicopter and work was only getting busier over the 2023 holiday period.
The number of daily helicopter rides at the theme park had doubled and ticket prices increased.
Mr Jenkinson had to pilot his share of those flights around the theme park and nearby islands, each of which could last from five minutes to half an hour.
At the same time, he was working on getting a new helicopter – an EC130 – in the air with Sea World.
About three times a week, he would work until 10pm to catch up on paperwork, the inquest heard.
“I am aware that it was from Indonesia and some engineering had to be done on it when it arrived in Australia,” Ms Richardson-Johnson said of the aircraft.
The EC130, the helicopter involved in the crash, had “demonstrably more restricted” pilot visibility than older models, coroner Carol Lee was told.
The pilot consumed cocaine before taking tourists on joy flights for Sea World “two or three times a year”, Ms Richardson-Johnson said.
Witnesses saw Mr Jenkinson take the drug at a 2022 New Year’s Eve party at his home, also drinking 12 beers and some whiskey.
He inhaled his last line of cocaine “at 3am, when we went to bed” on January 1 2023, Ms Richardson-Johnson said.
A day later, Mr Jenkinson took off for his ill-fated flight about 2pm.
He had already flown six joy flights since starting work at 9am.
A combination of cocaine withdrawal, alcohol hangover, work stress and lack of sleep could have affected Mr Jenkinson that day, the coroner heard.
A panel of five aviation medicine and toxicology experts were split on the probability he was flying while impaired.
Victoria’s chief forensic toxicologist, Dimitri Gerostamoulos, who gave evidence at mushroom murderer Erin Patterson’s trial, was on the panel.
Mr Jenkinson had a lower level of cocaine metabolites than most people who crashed in vehicles, Dr Gerostamoulos noted.
But senior forensic physician Katherine Robinson went further.
“Given his pattern of use in the days prior to the incident, it was more likely than not he was impaired by that drug taking” she said.
“Particularly with regards to its effect on his sleep and sleep quality.”
The horror crash also killed British newlyweds Ronald and Diane Hughes – aged 65 and 67 – as well as 36-year-old Sydney mother Vanessa Tadros.
Her then-10-year-old son Nicholas lost his leg in the tragedy after the pair boarded Mr Jenkinson’s helicopter on what they expected would be a five-minute flight around the Gold Coast.
He attended every day of the second week of the inquest with his father Simon, walking into the courtroom on his carbon-fibre prosthetic limb.
Hearings in the inquest are due to resume in February, including evidence from Sea World Helicopters executives.
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AAP
