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Investigators say it's "extremely fortunate" more people weren't killed in the devastating chopper collision that saw four people die on the Gold Coast yesterday.

The tragic accident happened when two aircraft, both operated by Sea World Helicopters, collided at about 2pm AEST.

One of the helicopters, carrying seven people, plunged to the ground while the second, carrying six people, managed somehow to land.

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Four people, including pilot Ashley Jenkinson, were killed, a woman and a young boy were still in a critical condition in hospital this afternoon and another boy, aged nine, had improved from critical to stable.

Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) responders retrieved the wreckage of the aircraft this morning and it was being moved to a secure facility this afternoon for detailed investigation.

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Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll warned the investigation could take days or even weeks.

"They (the ATSB) will look at every aspect, of distraction, what was happening in the cockpit, what the surroundings were, how optimal the flying conditions were," Carroll said.

"Every aspect of this needs to be looked at and that will all take time.

"Even when you get CCTV footage, there's many angles that will be looked at.

"No doubt, you know, there may be even passengers that would have had their own video footage.

"So this will be a meticulous and comprehensive investigation but they do take time."

She said any potential criminal charges would form part of the investigation but called for patience, stressing it was still "early days".

ATSB Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said the choppers had collided when one was taking off and the other was landing.

"From the footage that we've seen and from the damage that we can witness on there, it does appear that the main rotor blade of the helicopter taking off has collided with the front cockpit of the descending helicopter on the left-hand side," he said.

"Exactly whether that was the very first point of impact, we're yet to determine.

"But that in itself has led to the main rotor in the gearbox separating from the main helicopter which then had no lift and has fallen heavily to the ground."

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Mitchell said the crashed helicopter had only been in the air for 20 seconds before the collision.

He said the investigation to come would follow multiple avenues.

"What we do need to know now, is what was occurring inside the two cockpits at the time," he said.

"We do have multiple accounts from witnesses and a video.

"But equally, we'll get what we can from the two helicopters to try to get a better picture of what was occurring."

The ATSB will also look at what safety procedures were in place to protect helicopters in such a situation.

"So we'll anticipate certainly looking at multiple lines of inquiry here around the procedures that were in place, and potentially what has helped contribute to such a tragic outcome that we're standing here today," he said.

A key part of the investigation will be centred on the wreckage of the helicopters, but Mitchell said the ATSB would also interview witnesses, including survivors.

"We now have a painstaking job of trying to recreate exactly what's occurred in the lead-up to this tragic start to the new year," he said.

"We do have multiple accounts from witnesses and from cameras on buildings.

"What we'll need now is to try to piece together any recording devices, and that can be those that were fixed on the aircraft, and we know there was a number of them there."

Distraction a potential factor

A former Qantas pilot and aviation expert says distraction is one many factors that could have played a part in a chopper crash near Sea World on the Gold Coast which killed four people and left three people fighting for life.

Vision shows the accident happened when one of the helicopters was coming in to land and the other was taking off.

Richard de Crespigny, who has 45 years of flying experience, including 1000 hours of helicopter piloting, told Today there could have been many reasons why the pilots did not see each other before they collided.

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"If you look at that video (of the crash) you can see the aircraft above the horizon, that looks fairly easy to see, if there are no distractions," de Crespigny said.

"But are there distractions?

"Is a passenger saying something? Is the aircraft misbehaving?

"Is something drawing the pilot's view inside and he can't look outside?" 

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Approaching aircraft could also play visual tricks on a pilot's eyes, de Crespigny said.

"An aircraft … will start as being a dot on the windscreen and it then gets bigger and bigger in the same position, until it hits you," he said.

"The eye is not designed to see objects that are still, especially if the aircraft has got a painted skin that makes it sort of camouflaged.

"Were there distractions? Were the aircraft camouflaged in the airspace below? All these questions are still to be answered."

Aviation authorities were helping pilots install equipment used to transmit position and altitude to big commercial aircraft, de Crespigny said.

However, choppers flying close to the ground relied on pilots seeing and avoiding other aircraft, he added.

De Crespigny praised the efforts of one of the pilots who managed to land their chopper on the ground after the collision.

Of the six in the helicopter which landed, five were taken with minor injuries to Gold Coast University Hospital and one person was physically uninjured.

"I think the pilot who landed that aircraft after that mid-air collision did an excellent job of landing on a hard surface safely and everyone got out. 

"I think that looks like excellent piloting."

Elon Musk's wealth destruction has become historic.

The CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and Twitter is worth $201 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, good enough for second place on the list of the world's richest behind LVMH Chairman Bernard Arnault. But at its peak in November 2021, Musk's net worth was $500 billion.

That makes Musk the first person ever to lose $300 billion in wealth, Bloomberg reported last week.

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The bulk of Musk's wealth is tied up in Tesla, whose stock plunged 65 per cent in 2022. Demand for Teslas weakened as competition in electric vehicles from established automakers surged last year. The company missed its growth targets and scaled back production in China. Its fourth-quarter deliveries, announced Monday, missed Wall Street's estimates.

Evidence of car buyers' sinking interest in Teslas became apparent last month after the company announced a rare sale in a bid to clear out inventory. Tesla offered two rebates for buyers taking delivery of a vehicle before the end of the year, initially offering a $5500 discount then doubling the rebate to $11,000 with two weeks left in 2022.

Investors were rattled by the rebates, sending the stock plunging 37 per cent in December.

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Critics have long questioned whether Tesla was ever worth the trillion-dollar valuation it had at the start of 2022. At its peak, Tesla was worth more than the 12 largest automakers on the planet combined, despite having a fraction of their sales. Tesla ended the year worth $386 billion — still much larger than its automaker rivals but far smaller than the tech titans — Apple, Microsoft, Google and Amazon — with which it was being compared a year ago.

Musk's $65 billion purchase of Twitter hasn't helped Tesla's stock or Musk's personal wealth, either. Musk, Tesla's largest shareholder, has sold $34 billion worth of Tesla shares since his interest in Twitter became public in April.

His constant tweeting and increasingly erratic behavior, particularly after taking over as CEO at Twitter, has angered Tesla investors who want Musk to pay more attention to his significantly larger and more valuable company. Musk has defended himself against critics, saying he hasn't missed a major Tesla meeting since taking on responsibility for Twitter.

Tesla's stock may rebound, and Musk could once again become the world's richest person. But Musk's reputation as a genius took some serious damage in 2022 — almost as much damage as his personal wealth.

READ MORE: Elon Musk dethroned as world's richest person

Authorities were forced to close Sydney's Palm Beach today after spotting more than a dozen hammerhead sharks circling off shore.

As temperatures soared past 25C shark sirens rang out over the golden sands, urging ocean-goers to leave the water.

The warning broadcast said 10-15 hammerheads were spotted around 200 metres from the flag area of the beach, which is located on the northern beaches.

READ MORE: Pilot points to potential cause of deadly crash

Lifeguards took to the water on jetskis to patrol the ocean.

Palm Beach is a popular spot made famous by soap opera Home and Away, as it's the outdoor location used for the fictional town of Summer Bay.

Three species of hammerheads are found in Australian waters.

It's unclear what species of hammerhead were sighted at Palm Beach. 

READ MORE: 'Unusual sight' as sharks seen swimming in 'cartwheel' formation

Only the great hammerhead is considered dangerous, although attacks by the animals are relatively rare.

Today's sighting comes almost a month to the day two hammerheads were spotted cruising inside nets at Bondi Beach, reigniting the debate about the effectiveness of the control measure.

Civil Defence urges campers to hatch a wet weather plan head of 30 hr-plus deluge.

Three people have faced court over the death of a teenager whose body was discovered after a car fire in northern Victoria on Christmas Eve.

Emergency responders found the body of 19-year-old Wangaratta man Charlie Gander after extinguishing a car fire at Bunbartha about 10am.

Kylie Stott, 37, and Danny Clark, 38, faced Shepparton Magistrates Court on Tuesday morning, charged with the teen's murder.

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Dimitri D'Elio, 24, faced court on a single charge of murder on Tuesday afternoon.

During separate hearings it was revealed it will take up to four months for an autopsy report to be completed by pathologists because of the condition of the teen's remains.

All three co-accused have been interviewed by police.

It's alleged they murdered Gander within the City of Greater Shepparton on December 24.

Stott's version of events was not consistent with what has been investigated, Detective Senior Constable Alex Nucci told the court.

One of the male co-accused provided a no comment interview while the other denied the allegations, Det Nucci said without going into further detail.

Magistrate David Faram questioned whether others might be charged in connection with the teen's death.

Det Nucci said it was unfortunately a complex case and investigations were still ongoing, noting further inquiries had been made.

He also said potentially hundreds of hours of CCTV footage might form part of the investigation.

Stott's lawyer said the time delay would be prejudicial to her client, who is in custody for the first time.

The Mooroopna woman suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, separation anxiety from her children and chronic back pain as a result of being hit by a car some years ago.

She is also withdrawing from cannabis and methamphetamine, her lawyer said.

Clark, from Shepparton, also suffers anxiety, depression and back pain, and may also suffer mild substance withdrawals, his lawyer Natasha Van Der Heyden said.

D'Elio, also from Mooroopna, was supported in court by his parents.

His lawyer asked that he see a prison medical officer about his diagnosed depression.

All three are due back in court on June 27.

A woman has died after being located in an agitated state outside a commercial premises

Skilled migrants have been invited to apply for residence in one-off ballot before change.

Scientists conducting an aerial survey of the ocean off the coast of New England in the UShave come across some "unusual" behaviour.

The group witnessed several clusters of basking sharks swimming in what they called a "cartwheel formation", according to New England Aquariam.

Basking sharks are the second-largest living shark and fish after the whale shark.

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Pictures of the phenomenon were posted to social media by the aquarium.

"Usually, we see basking sharks swimming alone, so this was quite surprising," a statement about the sighting read.

The post also said scientists with the aquarium had also spotted an aggregation of about 1,400 basking sharks near Martha's Vineyard, a Massachusetts island, in 2013.

"These aggregations are a known but not commonly seen basking shark behaviour," the post said.

"Their function still remains a mystery, although it is thought that food resources could draw the sharks together, and they then engage in courtship behaviour.

"One thing's certain: It's a really cool sight."

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The basking shark is a filter feeder that consumes plankton. Adults typically reach lengths of 7.9 metres.

The species is found in arctic and temperate waters.

The largest basking shark ever recorded is said to have been caught in 1851 in Canada; it measured 12.3 metres in length.

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