Authorities have said the flight was unauthorized and are investigating how it took off from Cairns airport.
A man has died after an unauthorized flight ended in a crash in Queensland, Australiacon the helicopter hitting the roof of a hotel in the early hours of Monday. The accident caused hundreds of people to evacuate from the building.
Authorities in the northeastern city of Cairns said they had not confirmed the identity of the pilot or his reason for the flight, and did not know how the tourist helicopter was able to take off from Cairns airport without authorization.
A couple staying at the hotel was hospitalized for smoke inhalation and has now been discharged, Queensland Police Service acting chief Shane Holmes told reporters. Apart from the couple and the pilot, no one else on the ground was injured.
Holmes said it was not known whether the man flying the helicopter had a pilot’s license or worked for the company that owned the aircraft. Nautilus Aviation. “There is no more threats to the community and we believe this is an isolated incident,” Holmes said.
400 people evacuated
Nautilus Aviation said in an anonymous written statement that the flight was not authorizedbut did not provide further details. About 400 people were evacuated from the hotel after the accident, which occurred in the early hours of the morning in a busy Cairns tourist districta tropical city of 150,000 people in far north Queensland.
Witnesses told local media that the crash It sounded like a bomb explosion. Smoke and flames rose from the roof of the Doubletree Hilton hotel and one of the helicopter’s rotor blades landed in the hotel’s pool, Australian broadcaster ‘ABC’ reported.
