Brisbane, Australia
CNN
—
The pilot who died on Monday when a helicopter crashed into the roof of a luxury hotel in Cairns, Australia, was an employee of the charter company that owned the plane but was not authorized to fly, the group confirmed in a statement.
Nautilus Aviation said Tuesday that the pilot had been with the company for four months and had attended a party the night before the crash to celebrate his promotion to ground crew at another of the company’s bases.
“This was not a work event and was coordinated by friends,” the statement said.
Hundreds of guests and staff at the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel were evacuated when the helicopter crashed into the building near the Cairns Esplanade, a waterfront promenade popular with travelers in the north Queensland city, in the early hours of Monday.
Flames blazed into the night sky after the plane burst into flames, spilling fuel across the roof of the hotel and damaging some of the upper windows of the seven-story building.
Two holidaymakers who had been sleeping on the top floor of the hotel were taken to hospital with minor injuries.
Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Shane Holmes said on Monday the pilot was conducting “an unauthorised flight” but declined to comment on whether the helicopter was stolen or if the crash was deliberate, saying all investigations are still open.
Angus Mitchell, chief of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB), said investigators believed the helicopter took off from the general aviation hangar at Cairns Airport, about five kilometres from the hotel.
“We know that visibility was poor at the time and there was possibly rain,” he said.
“We want to understand what the helicopter was equipped with, but also possibly what the helicopter was doing at the time and what type of flight it was taking.”
Witness Veronica Knight, who was visiting Cairns from Sydney, was sitting on the Esplanade talking on the phone after midnight when she saw a helicopter flying very low over the water.
He was traveling “at full speed,” she told CNN. He disappeared from her sight for a few minutes and she was heading home when she spotted the helicopter flying back. When she pulled out her phone to film it, the helicopter turned and flew straight toward the nearby, well-lit buildings.
Seconds later, just before two in the morning, it hit the roof of the hotel.
Knight’s videos show the orange glow of flames and smoke rising from the hotel’s roof as sirens wail in the distance.
She said the helicopter flew over trees and another, taller building before hitting the roof of the hotel.
“(The pilot) would have known those buildings were there,” Knight said.
In a statement to CNN, the DoubleTree by Hilton Cairns said all of its guests – 421 adults and 50 children, as well as two staff members – had been safely evacuated.
Other investigators include the Forensic Accident Branch and the ATSB, which sent a team to the crash site on Monday to collect evidence and conduct interviews.
The office asked witnesses with photos or videos of the helicopter to contact authorities through its website.
