Outback Wrangler Matt Wright is accused of trying to hide part of his multi-million dollar fortune from the widow who is suing over the death of her husband, who was Wright’s TV sidekick.

Father-of-two Chris ‘Willow’ Wilson died in a helicopter crash at King River in the Northern Territory while on a crocodile egg collecting trip on February 28, 2022.

The devastating accident left pilot Sebastian Robinson paralyzed and Wright is facing criminal charges in connection with the tragedy.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) determined that the helicopter likely ran out of fuel and that Wilson died in a fatal fall when the harness he was hanging from under the aircraft came loose.

The ATSB report criticized the safety management system of helicopter company Helibrook, which is run by Wright, and the risk management of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA).

Mr Wilson’s widow, Danielle, is now suing Helibrook and CASA and a hearing was held at the Federal Court in Sydney on Friday to determine whether Wright should be added personally to the claim and his significant assets frozen.

Ms Wilson’s legal team argued that Wright’s interest in his Tiwi Island Retreat, a ‘glamping’ resort off the NT coast, had been transferred to a trust since the incident and that more of his assets were beyond the reach of any court order could be placed in Mrs. Wilson’s home. favor.

Tiwi Island Retreat, located on Bathurst Island northwest of Darwin, bills itself as an ‘unparalleled wilderness experience’ where interstate and international guests have the choice of staying in beachfront villas and luxury ‘glamping’ tents.

As well as a range of leisure facilities and tours, there is a restaurant and bar serving dishes ‘accented by Asian spices and bush tucker’ and featuring a fireplace and smoker where guests are encouraged to help prepare their own seafood.

Helibrook and Mr Wright’s lawyer, Darryn Kelly, argued that his client’s transfer of his interest in Tiwi Island Retreat was ‘business as usual’ and that extensive research of ASIC documents found no other example of similar transfers.

He argued that Ms Wilson’s team needed to establish that there was a deliberate and “sinister” attempt by Mr Wright to hide assets, which was not the case.

“Otherwise we would have this in every case, in fact” “I’m going to sue you, so you should now be required to show proof of your assets and convince me that you won’t do anything with them,” said Mr. Kelly said.

Judge Elizabeth Raper sided with Kelly and refused the order to freeze Wright’s assets, saying there was limited evidence that he had tried to “frustrate” any possible judgment.

“I am not satisfied that sufficient evidence has been presented to me as a result of this turn of events to issue this order,” she said.

She also noted that the transfer of the interest in Tiwi Island Retreat took place well before Mr Wright was aware of Ms Wilson’s civil case, which she filed late last year.

The issue of whether Mr Wright should be personally added as a party to the claim has been adjourned and will appear in court on April 10.

Mr Kelly told the court his client had no legal duty of care to Mr Wilson, because he was the helicopter’s owner or for any other reason.

“There was no relationship between the men that created a duty of care,” he said.

Mr Kelly likened the helicopter in question to owning a motor vehicle, which he said does not create a duty of care in relation to its use.

Ms Wilson is seeking costs, damages, interest, interest on costs and “any other order the court considers appropriate” for the psychological harm caused by the alleged conduct.

“(She) has suffered nervous shock and/or psychiatric damage and loss of maintenance and support from Mr. Wilson over the course of his life,” her court filing said.

The helicopter’s pilot, Sebastian Robinson, was seriously injured in the crash but survived.

An Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigation found that the helicopter’s engine stopped mid-flight due to a lack of fuel.

During the subsequent emergency landing, Mr Robinson released the helicopter’s hooks and lanyard before it crashed to the ground.

Wright and his aviation company Helibrook are facing a series of criminal and civil charges in the Northern Territory over the fatal crash.

His friend, respected NT pilot Michael Burbidge, was first on the scene of the crash before he was joined by Wright and former senior police officer Neil Mellon.

The three men were all later charged with perverting the course of justice and destroying evidence.

Burbidge later pleaded guilty to destroying Wilson’s mobile phone, while Wright will stand trial in the NT Supreme Court for breach of process.

A further six charges, including tampering with evidence and threatening Mr Robinson, have yet to be heard, but Wright denies all allegations of wrongdoing.

The wife of controversial Outback Wrangler star Matt Wright has revealed vandals set off a bomb on their property in the middle of the night after her husband was charged following a fatal helicopter crash.

Wright will stand trial later this year for perverting the course of justice following a helicopter crash in the Northern Territory’s West Arnhem Land in February 2022.

The crash killed his best friend Chris ‘Willow’ Wilson and paralyzed pilot Sebastian Robinson.

Wright’s model wife Kaia has now spoken out about the intense criticism she, her husband and their two young children have faced in the aftermath of the accident.

‘Once we woke up in the middle of the night by the sound of a bomb going off. Someone planted a bomb in our electrical box and blew it up,” she said The Sunday Telegraph.

“When Matt isn’t home, I put chairs in front of my door. It’s that constant fear and stress that can make it difficult to navigate every day and still run a business, be a mother and be a wife.”

Kaia said her four-year-old son Banjo witnessed hoons doing burnouts in front of his father earlier this week and shouting “prison man” at him after leaving a cafe in Darwin.

Banjo then asked his mother if his father was going to prison.

“What do you say to your bubbly son who idolizes his father, what do you say to that?” said Mrs. Wright.

Mr Wilson was dangling from a helicopter from Wright’s company Helibrook during a mission to collect crocodile eggs in February 2022 when the plane crashed, killing him on impact.

Wright was charged in connection with the investigation into the crash, not in connection with the cause of the crash itself.

As part of his bail conditions, Wright is not allowed to speak to more than 50 people.

He has strongly denied all allegations.

Wilson’s widow, Danielle Wilson, is personally suing Wright over the crash.

Mrs Wilson previously filed a civil action against his helicopter company Helibrook and the Australian Civil Aviation Authority, alleging they both failed to fulfill their duty of care to her late husband.

Helibrook and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), which authorized his suspension from the helicopter, were both named as respondents.

Ms Wright said the “hardest part” of the investigation was not being able to honor Wilson.

She said her husband and his friends recently couldn’t even get together to celebrate and remember Mr. Wilson for his birthday because he is legally prohibited from seeing some of them.

Mrs Wright said police raided and bugged their home while she was pregnant with their second child Dusty.

Birthday cards and love letters that she and her husband shared were all included as part of the research.

She said the investigation and her husband’s accusations took a devastating toll on his mental health and there were days when he couldn’t get off the couch.

Mrs Wright also said she faced serious trolling on her social media accounts, with some calling her husband a ‘murderer’.

Wright is due to stand trial on a charge of attempted perverting the course of justice in the Northern Territory Supreme Court later this year.

Two of Wright’s co-defendants, Michael Burbidge and ex-police officer Neil Mellon, have pleaded guilty to destroying evidence for their roles in the incident.

By Jamie Shapiro

Published: 08:43 EST, February 28, 2024 | Updated: 11:43 EST, February 28, 2024

This is the moment skiers narrowly avoid disaster after a passing helicopter drops its load with a huge gas canister and then hurtles down a slope in Italy.

The helicopter can be seen transporting goods under a perfect blue sky over the Aprica ski resort in the Sondrio province in the north of the country.

The plane dropped its payload before the gas cylinder hit the ground in a puff of snow and then hurtled down the slope, dangerously close to skiers descending the mountain.

The cylinder gained speed and grazed a skier who managed to avoid it in time, while other people in its path moved to the side of the slope, Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reports.

Fortunately, no one was injured and the cause of the incident, which took place on Sunday, is not yet clear.

Aprica enjoys relatively good conditions, with most of the ski area open.

It comes as more and more ski lifts across Europe have come to a standstill as resorts struggle to cope with the lack of snow after an exceptionally mild winter.

Grim images show entire mountains looking bare, when normally in the high season of mid to late February they would be covered in snow and crowded with winter sports fans.

In the French ski resort of Saint-Colomban-des-Villards, the lifts are at a standstill due to a lack of snow, while temperatures rise to 13 degrees Celsius. It is a situation that the newspaper Le Parisien describes as ‘unprecedented’, with locals declaring: ‘I didn’t think I would experience this in my lifetime.’

Similar scenes have been reported at the Artouste ski resort in the Pyrénées Atlantiques, where slope-preparation machines are set up in a field next to motionless ski lifts.

According to the newspaper Kronen Zeitung, resorts in Austria have also been affected by the closure of the Tyrolean ski area Mutterer Alm. And last week, photos emerged of dozens of snow cannons being used to strengthen the cover of the Swiss Leysin resort.

Earlier this month, ski lifts were switched off and snowmaking machines left behind on the grass of the 2,000-metre Terminillo mountain in Italy’s Apennines after it became ‘too hot’ to use artificial snowmaking, a lifeline for many resorts struggling with shortages.

The snow crisis comes at the height of the ski season, when thousands of Britons normally prepare to fly to the Alps to enjoy winter sports.

Further afield in Bosnia, visitors to Mount Bjelasnica this week dragged their skis through the mud to reach the ski lifts, as spring-like weather after the planet’s hottest January spoiled their usual winter activities.

One hopeful skier, Aida Dedic, who had traveled to the Bosnian resort from the Netherlands, said: ‘I was surprised when I saw this mud, it is different from last year.

“That’s probably because of these climate changes.”

Other European ski destinations, such as Italy, have also seen entire mountains without snow and ski centers abandoned.

After a warm December, skiers in the mountains around the Bosnian capital Sarajevo enjoyed a few weeks of colder weather and some snow, but in February the melt came.

A skier, Denis, from Croatia, said: ‘Unfortunately there is no snow.

‘We made reservations before, but we didn’t want to give up because the children were really looking forward to it.’

A Russian spy chief has described a helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine and was found shot dead in Spain as a “moral corpse” for betraying his country, in Moscow's first comment on the case since news of the killing emerged.

Captain Maksim Kuzminov, 28, fled Russia with the help of Ukrainian intelligence services and accused Vladimir Putin of “genocide” after his daring escape last summer.

But Ukraine's GUR military intelligence service confirmed yesterday that the pilot – a known target of Russian death squads – had been killed in Spain. They gave no further details about the circumstances surrounding his death, although Spanish and Ukrainian media reported that he had been living in Spain under an assumed name.

It is feared his assassination was an attempt to settle scores between Russia and Ukraine, which managed to capture a working helicopter when Kuzminov defected.

In the Kremlin's initial response to Kuzminov's killing, Sergei Naryshkin, the director of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), said: “In Russia it is customary to either speak well of the dead or nothing at all.”

But he quickly added, “This traitor and criminal became a moral corpse the moment he planned his vile and terrible crime.”

Western leaders say Russia regularly kills people abroad it considers traitors.

Moscow says the West has provided no evidence to support such claims.

A Spanish court in Villajoyosa has opened an investigation into the death of the shooting victim, a judicial source told Reuters on Tuesday.

At the time of his death, the victim had documentation proving he was a 33-year-old Ukrainian citizen, but his identity was still under investigation, the source said.

Kuzminov's defection to Ukraine was presented last year as a major coup for Kiev. At a press conference in Kiev, he said he could not understand why his “beloved motherland” would go to war with Ukraine.

Other members of the airline crew died during his defection. Moscow said Kuzminov killed them; he said they panicked and fled, and may have been killed afterwards.

In October, shortly after his dramatic defection, there were public death threats against Kuzminov in Russia, with suggestions that Putin's secret services would hunt him down and kill him for ultimate treason.

Anonymous Spetsnaz officers from Russia's GRU appeared on state television in Moscow last year, making it clear that an “order” had been given to liquidate Kuzminov.

State-owned Rossiya 1's Vesti Nedeli channel told viewers in a chilling broadcast: 'The order [to kill Captain Kuzminov] has been received, its implementation is a matter of time.'

One Spetsnaz officer said: “We will find the man and punish him for betraying his brothers, to the fullest extent of the law of our country.”

A second officer said: 'He won't live…'

It was believed that Kuzminov's wife and family had been brought from Russia before he defected. It is not known why he was in Spain.

After defecting, Kuzminov became a propaganda trophy for Ukraine.

He declared that there were no Nazis in Ukraine – a regular claim by Putin – and accused the dictator of “genocide” of both Ukrainians and Russians by waging the war.

In a documentary about his daring flight and surrender, he said: 'I realized I was near the border.

“So I gave up my location, said let's give it a try… I had made my final decision… I was flying at extremely low altitude in radio silent mode….”

He said: '[I defected because] I am very offended by what is happening now.

'Murder, tears, blood. Just people killing each other…

“What is happening now is simply a genocide of the Ukrainian people, both Ukrainian and Russian.

“The basis of my action is not to contribute to these crimes.”

In an interview broadcast by Ukrainian authorities, Kuzimov said: “I contacted representatives of the Ukrainian intelligence service, explained my situation, and they offered this option: 'Come on, we guarantee your safety, guarantee new documents, guarantee a monetary compensation, a reward'. '

He was reportedly promised £400,000 to defect to Ukraine with Russian military equipment.

By Eliza Mcphee for Daily Mail Australia and Australian Associated Press

Published: 10:39 PM EST, February 7, 2024 | Updated: 02:19 EST, February 8, 2024