Cameraman died in mid-air crash with ‘human swan’ colleague, inquiry told

A wildlife documentary producer has told an inquiry she was concerned about a cameraman’s safety when she saw him using a handheld camera to film a Facebook Live shortly before he died in a mid-air paramotor collision with colleague Sacha Dench.

Dan Burton, 54, was killed when his paramotor collided with one flown by Ms Dench, who is known as the “human swan”, while they worked together on a documentary about climate change in September 2021.

Climate activist Ms Dench had previously received acclaim for a similar expedition, recounted in BBC documentary Flight Of The Swans.

Ms Dench survived the crash but suffered serious injuries while attempting a 3,000-mile, round-Britain paramotor challenge to highlight climate change ahead of the Cop26 conference.

The crash happened near Loch Na Gainmhich in Sutherland, and a fatal accident inquiry is being heard at Tain Sheriff Court – with a hearing taking place virtually on Friday.

Amber Eames, who directed and produced Flight Of The Swans in 2016-17, told the inquiry “flying and filming is not something that really happens by one person”, and she had imposed protocols on the previous project to mitigate risks.

She was not involved with the 2021 round-Britain attempt but watched a Facebook Live made by Mr Burton, who she described as a friend and colleague.

The 53-second Facebook Live was shown to the inquiry by fiscal depute Jemma Eadie. It showed wobbly footage of terrain and coastline, before swivelling to show the pilot’s lap.

Ms Eames confirmed it was the footage she had seen described as “handheld”.

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She told the inquiry the protocols to divide tasks were “good practice” learned on safety courses, and avoided “task-loading” – causing distraction for people in dangerous situations such as pilots or divers by creating additional responsibilities.

Ms Eames, who said she had worked in around 40 countries and had organised training courses for a crew of 15 people before Flight Of The Swans, said that documentary had relied upon fixed-camera rigged up to paramotors, drones which were operated by separate pilots, and by additional crew filming from the ground and in a light aircraft.

She said she was concerned when she saw the Facebook Live video at around 4pm on September 18 2021, and later found out Mr Burton, from Devon, had died.

Ms Eames said: “At the time I was concerned because the shot wasn’t settling and I could see the person that was filming was airborne.

“I had concerns, especially because Dan Burton was a wonderful cameraman… and he was always keen to do more filming.

“We had spoken quite extensively about limiting the flying in filming and I put in place other ways to capture the pilots, so Dan could fulfil his main role as support pilot.

“When I saw the Live I commented to my friend when she arrived that I was concerned because the shot didn’t settle, I was concerned. It was only the next day that I heard about the accident. There was nothing in the video that showed anything of an accident.

“I was only concerned as the shot didn’t settle and I worried about multi-tasking.”

Ms Eames also told the inquiry she had had a “disagreement” with Ms Dench about filming with a selfie stick while working on Flight Of The Swans, but accepted the environmentalist was “perfectly qualified to say what she was happy to do”.

Ms Eames said: “My protocol was to take filming away from pilots so they could focus on flying and we could take pressure off from the ground and air. Any filming using a selfie stick was from their own discretion.”

She also said a cameraman had resigned in Russia due to safety concerns while working on Flight Of The Swans.

She told the inquiry she had called for a ground manager to be appointed on that expedition.

Witness Peter Cranswick, a project manager on Flight Of The Swans, was later questioned by Simon Richards, representing Ms Dench.

Mr Cranswick said: “We always wanted several pilots as when Sacha would land she would have to give interviews and concentrate on conservation stories, Dan was there specifically to capture pictures and film.

“The premise of the expedition was to capture and relay what we were doing on social and make a film. I’ve seen lots of para-motorists film in the air. We knew Dan was a pioneer of filming.”

Under cross-examination from Peter Anderson, representing the insurers of the British Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association, he said: “There was no point in conversation with Amber or anyone else which said ‘filming while in the air is something we need to worry about’.

“There was nothing which said ‘this is something we are going to do which pushes the boundaries’, or ‘I know people do it but we need to be careful’.

“I am confident that Amber did not tell me that was the case. She would be on my case regularly if that was something she was concerned about. We did not have conversations where she was concerned about pilots filming and she put into the schedule about Dan filming from the air.

“Nothing was raised about any aspects, no concerns were raised about any aspects of pilots filming.”

He added: “The health and safety thing for filming was do not let the filming cause a distraction and allow you to forget primary activity you are doing.”

The inquiry continues.