The father of a 10-year-old Sydney boy fighting for his life after a deadly helicopter crash on the Gold Coast that killed the child's mother has asked for prayers for his son.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Simon Tadros's wife Vanessa, 36, died with three other people when two Sea World Helicopters aircraft collided mid-air on Monday afternoon.
His son Nicholas has been in a coma and undergone multiple operations in hospital since the accident.
"I do ask that if everyone can please say a prayer for Nicky, so he can wake up and make a good recovery," Mr Tadros posted on social media on Tuesday night.
"He is in an induced coma on a life support machine to help him breath (sic).
"He is in a very serious and critical state. I'm asking for all your prayers to bring my little man back to me."
The crash near the Sea World amusement park also killed British-born pilot Ashley Jenkinson, 40, and Ron and Diane Hughes, 65 and 57, from Liverpool in the UK.
The helicopter, which had seven people aboard, fell from a height and slammed into a sandbar after its main rotor struck the windscreen of a second helicopter, and detached.
The two other survivors, nine-year-old Leon De Silva and his 33-year-old mother Winnie De Silva, from West Geelong, remain in hospital.
Leon has brain trauma while Ms De Silva suffered two broken legs, a damaged left knee, a broken right shoulder and a broken collarbone in the crash, which her husband Neil witnessed.
"Winnie and Leon's helicopter took off, it only went about 200m in the air," Mr de Silva told News Corp.
"I could see the other helicopter that was due to land ... it looked like they were going to crash into one another.
"As it got closer, I was thinking 'this is crazy, this looks really bad' and I just went numb".
He didn't find out his wife and stepson had survived until an hour and a half after the accident.
"It's tragic for Winnie and Leon, but they survived ... my heart goes out to the ones that didn't," Mr D e Silva told Nine News.
An online fundraiser he set up to help pay for his wife and stepson's treatment and his Gold Coast accommodation while they recovered had raised more than $24,500 by Wednesday morning.
The second helicopter's cockpit was severely damaged, but 52-year-old pilot Michael James managed to land on the sandbar, saving the lives of his five passengers, four of whom suffered glass shrapnel injuries.
Mr James and two passengers were still in hospital on Tuesday night.
IN OTHER NEWS:
The passengers included a West Australian woman and two New Zealand couples in their 40s who were travelling together.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is probing the crash, in particular what was happening inside the two cockpits at the point of impact.
Chief commissioner Angus Mitchell said Mr Jenkinson's aircraft had taken off and was in the air for less than 20 seconds before its main rotor blades hit the cockpit of the second helico pter, which was coming in to land.
"Now, exactly whether that was the very first point of impact we're yet to determine," he told reporters on Tuesday.
"But that in itself has led to the main rotor and the gearbox separating from the main helicopter, which then had no lift and has fallen heavily to the ground."
Australian Associated Press
