Report reveals pilot had traces of cocaine in his system during Sea World chopper crash

A toxicology report has revealed the pilot of a helicopter had traces of cocaine in his system – when it collided with another chopper on the Gold Coast last year. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has released an interim report into the Sea World helicopter crash that occurred a year ago in 2023 and killed four people and injured nine others. The goal is to identify if there were broader safety issues that went into the incident or were contributing factors. “Although it is unlikely the pilot of XKQ would have had any psychomotor skill impairment on the day of the accident, it is not known whether post-cocaine exposure effects … had any effect on the performance of the pilot,” ATSB said. ATSB also found that some passengers’ seatbelts weren’t fitted correctly in the accident – although this is not attributed to the tragic collision. Further investigation also found that seatbelts weren’t fitted by the operator “on a regular basis”.