Outback Wrangler host Matt Wright and influencer wife Kaia charged over shocking Top End airboat crash

Outback Wrangler host Matt Wright and his glamorous influencer wife Kaia are facing millions of dollars in fines after being charged over a Northern Territory airboat crash that fractured a woman’s skull and left seven others seriously injured.

NT WorkSafe has charged the celebrity couple and their Top End adventure tour company over a 2023 airboat crash that injured eight passengers.

The Wrights own and operate multiple tourism businesses in the NT including Tiwi Island Retreat, Top End Safari Camp, Freshwater Retreat and Darwin Adventure Boats.

The Wrights also own multiple airboats including Swamp Wrangler, Cyclone Creek, Gale Force and Mudskipper.

Airboats are flat-bottomed vessels, propelled by giant fans instead of motors, that glide across the water’s surface.

In May last year, 26 tourists were passengers on two airboats as part of a day tour at Top End Safari Camp at Bynoe, south-west of Darwin.

Half of the airboat passengers were children under the age of eighteen and the tourists were part of a larger group tour consisting of 102 tourists and two group tour staff at the safari camp.

During the cruise, one of the airboats named Gale Force crashed into the base of a semi-submerged tree with such force that the 13 passengers on-board were ejected from their seats.

NT WorkSafe alleges eight of the passengers were injured, with the most seriously injured passenger suffering a fractured skull and significant scalp laceration.

CareFlight airlifted two women with head and leg injuries to hospital after responding to the incident on May 10 last year.

Gale Force was being driven by one of the Wrights’ employees when it crashed at Sweets Lagoon, North West of Litchfield National Park.

The workplace safety watchdog has charged Top End Safari Camp Pty Ltd with four breaches of the Work Health and Safety (National Uniform Legislation) Act 2011.

The charges include breaching its primary duty of care by failing to ensure the health and safety of its workers and breaching its primary duty of care by failing to ensure the health and safety of the airboat passengers.

It alleged the company also breached its primary duty of care by failing to ensure a work environment, failing to provide and maintain a safe airboat and failing to provide and maintain a safe system of work.

The final charge for the company is failing to ensure the airboat was without risks to the health and safety of any person as required under the Act.

NT WorkSafe will allege Gale Force operated without any seat belts, lifejackets, a lifebuoy or a first aid kit on board, and the airboat’s radio was not working on the day of the incident.

It says these omissions breached the airboat manufacturer’s Airboat Operation, Safety & Maintenance Manual, as well as the company’s own safety management system.

NT WorkSafe will further allege that despite Top End Safari Camp’s safety management system being developed and authorised in December 2021, the company did not implement any risk assessments, risk registers or safety management plans for airboat operations specified in its safety management system until after the May 2023 incident.

It is further alleged that both airboats exceeded the maximum on-board passenger limits detailed in their Certificate of Operation issued by the national agency responsible for maritime safety.

NT WorkSafe has also charged the company’s two directors, Mr and Mrs Wright, with three breaches of the Act.

The pair are both charged with breaching their duty as officers and breaching their primary duty of care.

If found guilty of all charges, Top End Safari Camp faces a maximum $4 million combined penalty.

Mr Wright and his wife, who joined him as director of the company in 2021, face maximum combined penalties of $700,000 each.

Ms Wright rose to Instagram fame in 2022 after starring alongside her croc-wrangling husband in his Netflix series Wild Croc Territory.

The mum-of-two, who was previously with talent management agency The Fordham Company, is now represented by influencer, social media and public relations agency Reale.

As an influencer she regularly shares content – created for paid partnerships with brands including Garnier, Kellogg’s, BabyBjörn, PediaSure, smarTrike, 28GO protein powder, Trilogy Products and others – with her 120,000 Instagram followers.

In the last few years, Ms Wright has taken over from her husband as director and secretary of a number of companies including Wild Territory Tours Pty Ltd, Wright Expeditions Pty Ltd and Top End Safari Camp.

The NT WorkSafe charges are listed for mention at the Darwin Local Court on December 5.

The fact that the Wrights have been charged does not mean, and it is not suggested, that they are guilty of any of the NT WorkSafe charges.

The Nightly has sought a response from the Wrights.