Joe McConnell
A pilot has died after his helicopter crashed into the roof of a hotel in the north Queensland city of Cairns.
The plane hit the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel around 1:50 a.m. local time on Monday (4:50 p.m. Sunday), sparking a fire and forcing the evacuation of hundreds of guests.
Queensland Police confirmed that the helicopter’s sole occupant died instantly.
Two hotel guests, an 80-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman, were taken to hospital in stable condition, the state ambulance service said.
Amanda Kay, who was staying at the hotel on Cairns’ main promenade, said she saw a helicopter flying “very low”, with no lights, on a rainy day.
“[It] “It flipped over and hit the building,” he said, adding that the plane “exploded.”
According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), two rotor blades of the helicopter broke off on impact, landing on the esplanade and in the hotel’s swimming pool.
Another tourist staying at the hotel, Alastair Salmon, told the ABC he woke up to “a huge, deafening bang”.
Mr Salmon, from London, said that after being evacuated he initially mistook the helicopter’s rotor blade for a street lamp.
“Then we looked up and saw this huge hole in the window of the building,” he told the ABC.
The streets around the hotel have been cordoned off and police have declared a state of emergency.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said it was sending investigators to the scene of the crash.
