"Have fun, I'll see when you get back down."
Those were the last words Simon Tadros said to his wife Vanessa and his son Nicholas before they boarded a helicopter joy ride at Sea World.
That day, on Monday January 2, the Sydney family were holidaying on the Gold Coast when 10-year-old Nicholas asked if he could go on the helicopter after spotting the sales booth.
Before the ride, Simon remembers telling his wife, "it's amazing how quick they turn over these helicopters".
"My wife just turned around to me and said, 'babe, I'm sure they know what they're doing'," he told A Current Affair in an emotional interview on Monday night.
"I said yeah of course."
As the helicopter carrying Vanessa and Nicholas was taking off, another collided into them, leaving the 36-year-old dead and her son critically injured.
Simon didn't see the moment the two helicopters collided, but he remembers hearing "a big bang".
"I heard a propeller just whistling… and by the time I quickly jumped up to go look at what was going on, there was one helicopter smashing the ground and the other helicopter was just landing," he explained.
Not knowing which helicopter his wife and son were in, he waited for two to three hours "holding onto hope" that their helicopter was the one that landed safely.
Unfortunately, that was not the case and detectives later approached Simon to ask for a photo of his wife and son.
Shortly after, they returned and broke the news.
"They came back to me and said, 'I'm sorry, your wife is one of the people that is deceased'," he shared, explaining detectives told him his son had regained consciousness and was going to be flown to hospital.