Little boy is still fighting for life in a coma after horrific Sea World helicopter crash

A young boy from Sydney remains in a coma following the Gold Coast helicopter crash that killed four people earlier this week.

Nicholas Tadros, aged 10, was in a helicopter taking off near Sea World when it collided with another chopper and plunged onto a sandbar after its rotor blades sheared off.

The helicopter crash killed four people – including the pilot Ash Jenkinson

His mother Vanessa Tadros, 36, Britons Ron and Diane Hughes, 65 and 57, and 40-year-old pilot Ashley Jenkinson died at the scene on Monday.

A Queensland Health spokesperson confirmed on Thursday evening that Nicholas was still in a critical condition.

There have been no further official updates but a cousin of Vanessa Tadros told News Corp that Nicholas’s latest surgery to stop internal bleeding had been successful.

Nine-year-old Leon de Silva, from Geelong, suffered brain trauma but woke up in Brisbane Children’s Hospital on Thursday morning.

Investigations are under way to discern what caused the fatal crash

Authorities have said they want to know what happened inside the cockpits

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.

A Queensland Health spokesperson said three people from the other helicopter had all been discharged from hospital on Thursday.

Four of the helicopter’s five passengers and the pilot, 52-year-old Michael James, suffered shrapnel wounds when the cockpit’s windshield was struck by the other aircraft’s main rotor.

A step-by-step run-through of how the crash that killed four is understood to have unfolded

John Orr-Campbell, the director of Sea World Helicopters, which operated both aircraft, paid tribute to Mr Jenkinson, saying the company had ‘lost a first-class pilot, a first-class man and a wonderful father, partner and friend’.

‘We also mourn the loss of (Mr Jenkinson’s) passengers and cannot imagine the terrible sadness their families and loved ones must be feeling,’ Mr Orr-Campbell said.

Mr Orr-Campbell said he wanted to commend the other pilot, Mr James, ‘who heroically got the second aircraft to the ground safely’.

Video shot by one of the passengers in that aircraft appears to show another passenger trying to warn the pilot that the other 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 other helicopter’s rotor blades strikes the windshield.

One of the passengers can be seen trying to alert the pilot. Credit: Channel 7 

They appear to be pointing at the other helicopter. Credit: Channel 7