Pilot killed after crashing helicopter on roof of Australian hotel during unauthorized flight

A helicopter pilot was killed and others were injured early Monday after the pilot crashed a helicopter onto the roof of an Australian hotel during an unauthorized flight, authorities said. 

The New Zealand Herald identified the pilot as 23-year-old Blake Wilson of New Zealand. 

The aviation company Nautilus Aviation confirmed to news outlets that Wilson was one of its employees but had not flown in Australia before. 

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The company said he was a member of its ground crew and held a helicopter pilot’s license in New Zealand but was not authorized to fly the company’s helicopters in Australia.  

The man had worked at Nautilus Aviation for four months and had recently been promoted to a ground crew job at another of the company’s bases, Nautilus Aviation said. Before the crash, the man had attended a social event with colleagues to mark his departure for the new position, the company said. 

The flight was unauthorized and the helicopter “misappropriated,” the company added.

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The crash early Monday morning prompted the evacuation of hundreds of people from the building as flames engulfed the aircraft.

A couple staying at the hotel was hospitalized for smoke inhalation, and the two have since been discharged, Queensland Police Service Acting Chief Superintendent Shane Holmes told reporters. No one else on the ground was hurt.

Cairns Airport CEO Richard Barker said initial findings of a review Monday showed “no compromise of the airport security program or processes.”

Witness Veronica Knight walks past a piece of helicopter wreckage in Cairns, Australia, after the crash of the aircraft Monday, Aug. 12, 2024.  (Brian Cassey/AAP Image via AP)

The airport operated under “a federally approved, multi-layered transport security program,” Barker said.

The crash took place in a busy tourist district of Cairns, a tropical city of 150,000 people in far north Queensland, where it is peak season for holidaymakers. 

Witnesses told local news outlets the crash sounded like a bomb exploding.

Smoke billowed and flames rose from the roof of the DoubleTree Hilton, and one of the helicopter’s rotor blades landed in the hotel pool, the Australian broadcaster ABC reported.

The hotel remains cordoned off while its structural integrity is being examined.

Fox News Digital has contacted Nautilus Aviation and Queensland police for updates. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.