Witnesses said they woke up to “a colossal ear-deafening bang”. Source: Kgbo, Wikimedia Commons.
Hundreds of people have been evacuated, and streets closed off in Cairns after a helicopter crashed into a hotel roof earlier this morning.
Two of the helicopter’s rotor blades flew off and landed in the hotel pool, and another on the Esplanade.
Emergency services were called to Double Tree Hotel by Hilton in Far North Queensland shortly before 2am this morning.
The pilot of the helicopter was declared dead at the scene, with police still working to formally identify him.
Another man is reported to have had life-threatening injuries. Two other people — a man in his 80s and a woman in her 70s — were taken to Cairns Hospital in stable condition.
Police declared a Public Safety Preservation Act (PSPA) and evacuated 400 people from the area.
Bystanders that witnessed the incident said that the helicopter looked like it was “being driven like a racing car at full speed or like a dive bomber… small helicopter”.
“It was very loud — I thought it might have been a tower on top of the building exploding, it was that sort of a sound,” said Wayne Leonard, who lives 100 metres from the hotel.
“When I went and looked out the window I could see huge, big flames on the top of the building.”
Other witnesses said the crash felt like a “bomb” was going off, with flames “rising up the side of the building”.
“Suddenly all the alarms start going off and then [people] start evacuating with police yelling ‘get out, get out, get out’,” said a hotel guest.
Another hotel guest, Alastair Salmon, said he first mistook the helicopter’s rotor bade for a street lamppost.
“Then we looked up there and you could see this massive hole in the window of the building,” he said.
Police have advised people to avoid the area.
An exclusion zone has been put in place encompassing Esplanade, Minnie Street, Aplin Street, and Grafton Street.
A police investigation is underway, with a team of investigators heading to the scene.
Nautilus Aviation, which owns and operates the helicopter, is assisting police with the investigation.
