The theme park and Sea World Helicopters
Chopper operator had 10-year agreement with Village Roadshow
THE company whose helicopters collided and crashed into Broadwater sandbanks was wholly owned by Sea World operator Village Roadshow until the theme park contracted out its scenic flight operations in 2019.
The pair of Eurocopter EC 130 B4s collided in the air up to 300 metres above the Gold Coast Broadwater west of Sea World theme park about 2pm on January 2.
Chief pilot Ash Jenkinson and three of his passengers were killed in the crash, while a woman and two children were critically injured.
Six people from the other helicopter suffered non lifethreatening injuries after pilot Michael James skilfully landed his badly-damaged craft on a sandbank, leaving experts “astonished”.
Video footage of the crash shows one of the aircraft, bearing the Sea World logo, taking off from a jettymounted helipad, accessible only via a gangway from inside the theme park. Within 20 seconds the collision occurs.
Sea World theme park staff were among the first to the scene, offering emergency care to the victims and encountering deceased.
Sea World Helicopters offered flights as short as five minutes, priced from $69, from within the theme park and from the other four helipads next to the Sea World carpark.
The helicopter company was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Village Roadshow until 2019, and had been named Village Sea World Aviation until the operation was outsourced on a 10-year contract.
Under the deal, Sea World Helicopters paid for a new helicopter hangar and an expansion of the helipads in late 2019.
Registration for the Sea World Helicopters website is still held under Village Roadshow’s ABN, while the inpark ticket shop and carpark heliport appears in the Sea World Park Map.
A Village Roadshow statement on the day of the tragedy – offering “its deepest condolences to all those impacted” – said Sea World Helicopters was “an independent professional operator”.
Village Roadshow delisted from the ASX in 2020 after a takeover by BGH Capital, with members of the Kirby and Burke families still on board as directors and shareholders of the new holding company, VRG Holdco.
Village Roadshow has said it was working with emergency services and the authorities to “provide every possible assistance”.
But the company did not respond to questions about how many of the passengers purchased their tickets from the Sea World Helicopters shop that’s inside the theme park or whether the company had engaged legal counsel regarding the tragedy.
“We are providing support to our team members who have been emotionally affected. As it is now a police investigation, we cannot provide any further information at this stage.”
Sea World Helicopters is solely directed by Victoriabased John Orr-Campbell, 66, while Michele OrrCampbell, 57, is the ultimate sole shareholder via a number of holding companies.
It has been revealed company Professional Helicopter Services, also directed by Mr Orr-Campbell and with the same business address as Sea World Helicopters, has been at the centre of two previous ATSB investigations. They include one where the pilot and two passengers were seriously injured near Uluru in 2018.
PHS this week said it was a separate company to Sea World Helicopters, saying their “only commonality is some management oversight due to the nature of the owner’s investment.”
PHS is named in a 2019 Village Roadshow investor report as being the contractor granted a 10-year agreement to operate Sea World Helicopters.
There is no further information in publicly-accessible reports about the nature of the agreement.
Several aircraft operated by PHS and Sea World Helicopters are registered to the same owner.
Both helicopters involved in the crash were Eurocopter EC 130 B4s, reportedly worth $2.4m each.
The registered owner of VH-XKQ – the destroyed helicopter piloted by Mr Jenkinson – is Orcca Global Funding, another company directed and ultimately held by the Orr-Campbells.
The other helicopter involved in the smash, VHXH9, piloted by survivor Michael James, is owned by Heli Holdings, an Australian company whose ultimate owner is China-based machinery conglomerate Rifa Holding Group.
Orcca Global Funding is the registered owner of 10 helicopters, including a third Eurocopter EC 130 B4, operated by Sea World Helicopters’ “VIP” subsidiary, Ultra Helicopters.
Mr Orr-Campbell’s business life began operating security guard firms before joining Professional Helicopter Services as executive director in December 2016.