TWO NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC filmmakers have been killed in a helicopter crash in eastern Australia.

BAFTA-winning US cinematographer and biologist Mike deGruy and Australian cave-diver and producer Andrew Wright were currently working on a documentary film with director James Cameron and National Geographic.

The magazine said that the helicopter, which was owned and piloted by Wright, crashed shortly after taking off yesterday from Jasper’s Bush, Nowra.

New South Wales police said in a statement that both of the victims died at the scene and an investigation has been launched into the circumstances of the crash.

Wright had worked with Oscar-winner James Cameron on six deep ocean projects including Ghosts of the Abyss and Last Mysteries of the Titanic. DeGruy was the director of undersea photography on the latter project.

Cameron has described the two filmmakers’ deaths as a “tremendous loss for the world of underwater exploration, conservation, and filmmaking”:

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.

They died doing exactly what they loved most, heading out to sea on a new and personally challenging expedition, having fun in the way they defined it for themselves, which was hardship and toil to achieve something never done before.

National Geographic Society president Tim Kelly said: “Andrew and Mike were part of our extended family at National Geographic, and our hearts, prayers, and thoughts go out to their loved ones. They accomplished so much, but were taken too early, and our world is greatly diminished by their leaving it.”