By Osagie Alonge
US award-winning documentary filmmaker Mike DeGruy and screenwriter-producer Andrew Wight have died in a helicopter crash in the East of the Australian region, their employer National Geographic said today Sunday, February 5, 2012.
‘Two world-renowned filmmakers were killed in a helicopter crash in Australia on Saturday. Mike deGruy, a biologist and conservationist, and Andrew Wight, a pilot and underwater cave diver, were working with James Cameron and National Geographic on a documentary film‘, a statement on the National Geographic website reads.
Aussie Police had reported an Australian pilot and an American passenger ‘died Saturday when their helicopter crashed soon after take-off from an airstrip near Nowra’. They did not release the identities of the victims immediately. Australia’s ABC News had however reported that Wight was piloting the helicopter when it crashed.
James Cameron (‘Titanic’ movie director) and National Geographic later confirmed the identities in a joint statement.
DeGruy, 60 and Wight, 52 were said to have set off to film a documentary when they crashed.
The former won multiple Emmy and British Academy of Film and Television Arts, or BAFTA, awards for cinematography while the latter was the writer-producer of the 3D movie ‘Sanctum’ which took in $100 million and was Australian cinema’s biggest box office hit of 2010.
‘Mike and Andrew 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’, Cameron said.
DeGruy is survived by his wife, Mimi, his son, Max, and his daughter, Frances while Wight is survived by his wife, Monica, and his son, Ted.
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