The helicopter crashed into the Yarrangobilly River on 17 April 2018. Photo: ATSB.
When the helicopter Philip Gregory O’Driscoll was flying fell out of the sky in the Snowy Mountains, it was not the first time he managed to survive a chopper crash.
This second accident took place in 2018 before a long-running civil case ended in late December 2025, awarding Mr O’Driscoll and his company, O’Driscoll Aviation, almost $500,000 combined.
But the NSW Supreme Court case is not over yet, because the company he sued for negligence, Encore Aviation, recently flagged it will appeal some of the orders.
Long-time pilot Mr O’Driscoll sustained “catastrophic” injuries in a helicopter crash in Canada in 2005, but survived, Justice Richard Cavanagh SC wrote in his published decision.
Then on 17 April 2018, he was using his company’s 1965 Bell Garlick UH-1H helicopter to help move a large drill-rig from a site near Talbingo in the Snowy Mountains when his engine shut down.
The helicopter crashed into Yarrangobilly River and caught fire.
“This must have been a traumatic event for the plaintiff,” Justice Cavanagh said.
“The cause of the crash was mechanical defect rather than pilot error.”
He said Mr O’Driscoll sustained significant physical injuries, although returned to flying in June 2018.
“He maintains that he continues to suffer from disabilities which impact upon his ability to work and his ordinary life and indeed, his ability to care for himself,” he said.
Mr O’Driscoll, a now-53-year-old who lives in Humpty Doo in the Northern Territory, launched the civil case against Encore Aviation, which provided servicing and maintenance for the helicopter, seeking damages for his alleged injuries while his company sought damages for the destroyed helicopter.
Justice Cavanagh said the defendant admitted it owed a duty of care to the plaintiffs, but denied breaching any duty, contract or consumer guarantee.
The plaintiffs claimed cracking to the engine was not noticed during inspections that took place on the two days before the crash, but did not suggest Encore Aviation failed to undertake its work properly during earlier inspections.
A licenced aircraft maintenance engineer working for Encore Aviation said he carried out maintenance on the helicopter in the months leading up to the crash, but never noticed any visible cracks on the engine.
Philip Gregory O’Driscoll was injured in the crash while his helicopter caught fire and was destroyed. Photo: Australian Transport Safety Bureau.
Justice Cavanagh ultimately accepted the engineer inspected the helicopter on the morning of the crash and some visible cracking must have been present before the final flight.
“The only inference available from the presence of the cracking and his failure to detect it is that he failed to carry out his inspection on that day with the required level of care and skill and in particular, in accordance with the manual which required an inspection for such cracking,” he said.
While this meant the plaintiffs’ claims would be partly successful, Justice Cavanagh assessed contributory negligence at 50 per cent because Mr O’Driscoll failed to see the cracking when conducting his own inspection of the helicopter that morning as well.
The judge also did not accept the pilot suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder due to the 2018 crash.
Some evidence suggested he had the condition after the 2005 crash, while the judge also said Mr O’Driscoll had denied having any psychological symptoms when applying for his pilot’s licence every year after 2018.
Shortly before the hearings for the case ended in 2025, Mr O’Driscoll told the Civil Aviation Safety Authority he did in fact suffer from psychological symptoms so could not fly.
In Justice Cavanagh’s decision, he noted how Mr O’Driscoll and O’Driscoll Aviation hadn’t paid any tax for the past 14 years, but his company’s annual gross income between 2011 and 2024 ranged from $204,000 to over $1 million.
“There is so much evidence contrary to the plaintiff’s claims in these proceedings that I am not prepared to merely accept what the plaintiff says in his claims in these proceedings as to the consequences of the 2018 crash,” he said.
He ultimately awarded $55,250 to Mr O’Driscoll and $429,944 to O’Driscoll Aviation, while he also told Encore Aviation to pay the plaintiffs’ legal costs.
However, Encore Aviation’s lawyers have since filed a notice of motion to apply to vacate the orders awarding Mr O’Driscoll his personal damages and covering all the legal costs.
This matter will return to court for directions on 12 March.
Original Article published by Albert McKnight on Region Canberra.
