A 10-year-old Australian boy remains in a coma after a crash between two helicopters which killed four people, including the child’s mother.
Another boy, nine, who was in hospital in a critical condition after the smash, woke up on Thursday after suffering brain trauma, according to health authorities.
The nine-year-old boy’s mother remains in hospital in a stable condition.
Another three people hurt in the collision were left hospital on Thursday, according to Queensland Health.
One helicopter was taking off and the other landing when they collided Monday afternoon near the Sea World theme park on Queensland state’s Gold Coast, police said.
A pilot, two British visitors and the 10-year-old boy’s mother Vanessa Tadros, 36, died when the helicopter they were in fell to the ground after its rotor blades were sheared off.
Those most seriously injured were aboard that helicopter.
The pilot of the second helicopter managed to land safely on a sandy outcrop despite the aircraft suffering significant damage, authorities said.
Queensland Health said 10-year-old Nicholas Tadros from Sydney remains in a critical condition. A relative told News Corp the boy’s latest surgery to stop internal bleeding was successful.
Earlier this week, the boy’s father, Simon Tadros, said on social media his son was in an induced coma and on a life support machine to help him breathe.
“He is in a very serious and critical state. I’m asking for all your prayers to bring my little man back to me,” Mr Tadros wrote.
Nine-year-old Leon de Silva woke up in Brisbane Children’s Hospital on Thursday morning, health authorities said.
His mother Winnie, 33, was also awake and in a stable condition with two broken legs, a damaged left knee, broken right shoulder and broken collarbone.
Also killed in the crash were pilot Ashley Jenkinson, 40, and British tourists Ron Hughes, 65, and Diane Hughes, 57.
John Orr-Campbell, the director of Sea World Helicopters, which operated both aircraft, said in a statement Jenkinson was “a first-class pilot, a first-class man and a wonderful father, partner and friend”.
He said the company also mourns the deaths of the passengers and “cannot imagine the terrible sadness their families and loved ones must be feeling”.
Video shot by one of the passengers in the helicopter that managed to land showed another passenger trying to warn the pilot the second helicopter was fast approaching by tapping him on the shoulder.
The passenger then squeezes the edge of the pilot’s seat to brace as the cockpit is sprayed with broken glass after one of the second helicopter’s rotor blades strikes the windshield.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating the crash.
