Award-winning American cinematographer Mike deGruy and Australian television writer-producer Andrew Wight have died in a helicopter crash in eastern Australia, their employer National Geographic said today.
Police said two people - an Australian pilot and an American passenger - died yesterday when their helicopter crashed soon after take-off from an airstrip near Nowra, 97 miles north of Sydney, but did not immediately release the victims' identities. Australia's ABC News reported that Wight was piloting the helicopter when it crashed.
National Geographic and Titanic director James Cameron confirmed the victims' identities in a joint statement that said "the deep-sea community lost two of its finest" with the deaths of the two underwater documentary specialists.
David Bennett, president of Australia's South Coast Recreational Flying Club, said the pair had set off to film a documentary when they crashed.
DeGruy, 60, of Santa Barbara, California, had won multiple Emmy and Bafta awards for cinematography.
Wight, 52, of Melbourne, was the writer-producer of the 3D movie Sanctum, which was Australian cinema's biggest box office hit of...
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