During a “unauthorised” early-morning trip in Australia, the pilot’s helicopter crashed onto the roof of a hotel, killing the pilot. Hundreds of guests were forced to evacuate after the aircraft struck the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in the northern Queensland city of Cairns at approximately 01:50 local time on Monday (16:50 BST Sunday). The impact caused a fire.
Two hotel visitors, an 80-year-old man and a 70-year-old lady, were transferred to the hospital in stable condition, while the lone occupant of the helicopter perished at the scene, according to the authorities. The helicopter may have been stolen, according to certain accounts in the local media.
Owner of the helicopter, Nautilus Aviation, promised to collaborate closely with the Queensland authorities in their investigation of the “unauthorised use of one of our helicopters in the early hours of this morning”. Amanda Kay, who was lodging at the Cairns hotel on the main esplanade, told of seeing a helicopter flying “extra low” in the rainy season without any lights. She said, “[It] turned around and hit the building,” adding that the plane “blew up.”
Two minutes prior to the crash, another onlooker claimed to have seen the helicopter fly past the hotel twice. “That helicopter was flying so fast, boy. In a video depicting the crash’s fiery aftermath, a woman exclaimed, “Unbelievable.” “It was just going out of control, that thing was.” Two of the helicopter’s rotor blades fell off on contact, landing on the esplanade and in the hotel pool, according to Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS). “There’s been reports it sounded like a bomb, and [that after] seeing smoke and fire from that, a lot of the occupants of the hotel were very unsure about the situation,” spokeswoman Caitlin Dennings told the media.
Alastair Salmon, another guest at the hotel, told the ABC that it was “a colossal ear-deafening bang”. Mr Salmon, from London, was among roughly 400 individuals who were evacuated from the hotel. He explained that he thought it was a lamppost when he saw the helicopter’s rotor blade on the ground close by. “Then we looked up there and you could see this massive hole in the window of the building,” he explained to the ABC. Law enforcement has declared an emergency and blocked off the streets surrounding the hotel. Investigations into the accident’s circumstances are still ongoing by Queensland Police and the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, which oversees aviation safety. The Great Barrier Reef is close by in the northern Queensland city of Cairns, which is a well-liked travel destination.
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