A family manufactured allegations against reality TV star Matt Wright to protect a badly injured pilot after a fatal helicopter crash, a court has been told.

Outback Wrangler star Wright has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice in the Supreme Court in Darwin.

The charges follow the helicopter crash in February 2022 that killed Wright’s friend and co-star Chris “Willow” Wilson on a crocodile-egg collecting mission in the Northern Territory’s Arnhem Land.

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Pilot Sebastian Robinson, 32, was left a paraplegic after the crash.

The charges do not relate to the cause of the accident and the prosecution does not allege Wright is responsible for the crash, Wilson’s death or Robinson’s injuries.

On Tuesday Mr Robinson’s brother Zaccarie Chellingworth was grilled over a bedside conversation he heard between Wright and the injured pilot at Royal Brisbane Hospital in March 2022.

Wright has been accused of trying to get Robinson to fake flying-hour records because he was concerned crash investigators would find out he and his pilots had been disconnecting flight-time meters and faking paperwork.

At the hospital Wright had said he needed to take 15 to 20 hours off the crashed helicopter and put them on Robinson’s own chopper “because there were hours unaccounted for,” Chellingworth said.

Chellingworth said his brother had declined the request, to which Wright replied he could find some other way around it.

He said Wright had asked Robinson to delete any texts, videos or calls from his phone in relation to the crash but he did not see anyone delete messages in the hospital room.

Under questioning from senior defence counsel David Edwardson KC, Chellingworth, a licensed aircraft engineer, said he was aware aviation crash investigators suspected the crashed chopper had run out of fuel.

Edwardson put it to Chellingworth he knew his brother would be in trouble if fuel exhaustion was found to be the cause of the crash.

He put it to Chellingworth he and his mother Noelene along with his brother Jacob had “manufactured allegations” against Wright to protect Robinson from blame for the crash.

“It’s a lie, it never happened,” the defence counsel said.

Chellingworth replied: “That ‘s not true”.

It was “very tense and very emotional” at the time and he had told Wright to leave the room, he said.

“You’re making it up as you go along aren’t you?” Edwardson said.

“No, I’m not,” Chellingworth replied.

Edwardson said Wright was trying to help Robinson “clean up the mess he left behind” referring to the pilot’s poor recording of flying hours, a claim Chellingworth rejected.

When asked about Robinson’s cocaine use Chellingworth said his brother was not an addict or a dealer and he had only seen him take the drug once, at a buck’s party on Wright’s boat.

Robinson’s uncle, James Carew, was present at Wright’s second visit to the hospital and told the court he recorded the bedside conversation.

“I was there to prevent Sebastian signing anything against his will,” he said.

Carew said he remembered there was talk of machines and hours, and Wright saying something about “assigning hours”.

The trial continues.