ANDREW Wight, the Culcairn writer and producer of last year’s 3D blockbuster film,
Sanctum, was one of two men killed in a helicopter crash near Nowra on Saturday.
Wight, 52, renowned as a keen pilot, diver and explorer, had been flying his Robinson R44 helicopter with American filmmaker Mike deGruy, 60, aboard when it crashed while taking off from an airstrip south of Berry on Saturday afternoon.
View Larger Map
The pair had been working with Oscar-winning director James Cameron and National Geographic on a documentary film.
Wight, right, pictured with James Cameron at a press conference to promote Sanctum.
Yesterday, Border gynaecologist and long-time friend, Scott Giltrap, remembered Wight as a keen cattleman who returned as often as possible to his properties at Culcairn and Harrow in western Victoria, between his film work.
“He spent a lot of his time here; he had been involved in a cattle group with us,” Dr Giltrap said.
He said the pair had met more than 10 years ago through mutual farming friends.
Dr Giltrap said he had flown many times with Wight in his helicopter, describing him as “a very cautious pilot”.
“We flew all over NSW and Queensland during the drought, inspecting cattle we had agisted there,” he said.
Dr Giltrap said Wight was also a keen horseman and the pair had completed several trips into the Bogong High Plains with pack horses and chasing brumbies.
Wight was 50 when had married his wife Monica and the pair had a baby son, Ted, early last year.
“It’s terrible news for his wife and child,” Dr Giltrap said.
Wight last spoke to The Border Mail in January last year on the eve of the premiere of Sanctum in Los Angeles, where he stood alongside Cameron, who was the film’s executive producer.
An Emmy nominee and Australian adventurer of the year medal winner, Wight had successfully pitched to Cameron the idea of the thriller about an underwater diving expedition that goes horribly wrong, while working on the latter’s 3D IMAX and television specials.
Last night Cameron, director of Titanic and Avatar, said that Wight and deGruy “were like family to me. They were my deep sea brothers, and both were true explorers who did extraordinary things and went places no human being has been”.
“Andrew was kind and loyal, full of life and a sense of fun, and above all, a careful planner who stressed safety to everyone on his team every single day,” Cameron said.
“It is cruelly ironic that he died flying a helicopter, which was second nature to him, like driving a car would be to most people.”
Last month Wight was introduced to the media as the general manager of a new Melbourne office for Cameron Pace, the 3D production company owned by Cameron and Vince Pace.
The office was a first for Cameron’s group outside the US.
Email a friend