Cameraman died in mid-air crash with ‘human swan’ colleague, inquiry told
A wildlife documentary maker feared for her safety when she saw a cameraman using a handheld camera to film Facebook Live with colleague Sacha Dench shortly before he died in a mid-air paramotor collision, an inquest has heard.
Dan Burton, 54, died in September 2021 when his paramotor collided with one flown by Ms. Dench, known as the “human swan,” while they were working together on a documentary about climate change.
Climate activist Ms Dench had previously been praised for a similar expedition, according to the BBC documentary Flight Of The Swans.
Ms Dench survived the crash but suffered serious injuries while embarking on a 3,000-mile paramotor challenge around Britain to highlight climate change ahead of the Cop26 conference.
The crash occurred near Loch Na Gainmhich in Sutherland and the fatal crash investigation is being heard at Tain Sheriff Court; The hearing is being held virtually on Friday.
Amber Eames, who directed and produced Flight Of The Swans in 2016-17, told the inquiry that “flying and filming is not really something one person does” and had imposed protocols on the previous project to reduce risks.
He was not involved in the attempted 2021 tour of Britain but watched a Facebook live broadcast by Mr Burton, whom he describes as a friend and colleague.
The 53-second Facebook Live was shown to the inquiry by fiscal MP Jemma Eadie. It showed shaky images of the terrain and coastline before turning to show the pilot’s lap.
Ms Eames confirmed that the images she saw were described as “handheld”.
He told the inquiry that protocols for dividing tasks were “good practice” learned in safety courses and avoided “task overload”, which created additional responsibilities and caused people to be distracted in dangerous situations, such as pilots or divers.
Stating that he worked in nearly 40 countries before Flight Of The Swans and organized training courses for a team of 15 people, Eames said that the documentary was based on fixed cameras equipped with paramotors, drones operated by separate pilots, and additional teams shooting from the ground and with light aircraft.
He said he became concerned when he saw the Facebook Live video at around 4pm on September 18, 2021, and later learned that Mr Burton, from Devon, had died.
Ms Eames said: “I was worried at the time because the footage wasn’t smooth and I could see the person filming was in the air.
“I had concerns, especially because Dan Burton was a great cameraman and was always willing to shoot more.
“We had talked quite extensively about limiting flight during filming, and I put in place other ways to capture pilots so Dan could fulfill his primary role as support pilot.
“When I watched the live broadcast, when my friend came, I told him that I was worried because the shot had not been resolved, I was worried. I only heard about the accident the next day. There was nothing in the video that showed anything of the accident.
“I was just worried about the shoot not turning out, and I was worried about multitasking.”
Ms Eames also told the inquest that she had a “disagreement” with Ms Dench about taking selfie stick shots while working on Flight Of The Swans, but accepted that the environmentalist was “perfectly qualified to say what she was happy to do”.
Ms Eames said: “My protocol was to take filming away from the pilots so they could focus on flying and we could take the pressure off the ground and in the air. Any filming using a selfie stick was at the pilots’ discretion.”
He also said that a cameraman in Russia resigned due to safety concerns while working on Flight Of The Swans.
He told the inquest he called for a ground manager to be appointed to this expedition.
The witness, Flight Of The Swans’ project manager Peter Cranswick, was later questioned by Simon Richards, who represents Ms. Dench.
Mr Cranswick said: “We always wanted a few pilots as Sacha had to give interviews and concentrate on conservation stories once he landed, with Dan specifically there to take photos and film.
“The purpose of the expedition was to capture what we were doing on social media and make a movie. I saw a lot of para-bikers filming in the air. We knew Dan was a pioneer of filming.”
Under cross-examination by Peter Anderson, who represents insurers for the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, he said: “There was no point in having a conversation with Amber or anyone else saying ‘filming in the air is something we need to worry about’.
“There was nothing that said, ‘This is something we’re going to do that’s pushing the envelope,’ or ‘I know people do this, but we need to be careful.’
“I’m pretty sure Amber didn’t tell me that was the case. If it was something she was worried about, she would have dealt with my case regularly. We didn’t have a conversation where she was worried about the pilots filming, and she put it on the schedule about Dan doing aerial filming.”
“Nothing was raised, no concerns were expressed about any aspect of the pilots’ filming.”
He added: “The health and safety thing for the shoot was to not let the shoot distract you and forget the actual activity you were doing.”
The investigation continues.
