By Jessica Black, ABC News
The DoubleTree by Hilton on Cairns Esplanade Photo: Supplied / Queensland Ambulance Service
The pilot of a helicopter that crashed into the roof of a Far North Queensland hotel has died.
Up to 400 people were evacuated from the DoubleTree by Hilton on Cairns Esplanade after the crash, which set the top of the building alight, shortly before 2am on Monday, police said.
Two of the helicopter's rotor blades came off and landed on the esplanade and in the hotel pool. There were no injuries on the ground.
Forensic investigators are working to identify the pilot, who died at the scene.
Two other patients - a man in his 80s and a woman in her 70s - were taken to Cairns Hospital in a stable condition.
Breaking: A helicopter crashed into the roof of a hotel in Cairns, Far North Queensland, Australia around 2 am. Emergency services evacuated 400 people from the building. Police are urging the public to avoid the area. #Cairns #HelicopterCrash #NorthQueensland… pic.twitter.com/CU7352RFlJ
— Ghulam Abbas Shah (@ghulamabbasshah) August 11, 2024
Hotel guest Alastair Salmon woke up to "a colossal ear-deafening bang". He and roommate Harry Holberton were on the third floor.
Holberton said the crash felt like a bomb 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'."
Salmon, who had travelled from London, said he first mistook the helicopter's rotor blade for a lamppost.
"Then we looked up there and you could see this massive hole in the window of the building," he said.
Photo: Supplied / Queensland Ambulance Service
The pair were let into the hotel to get their belongings.
"All over the hotel there was debris, parts of a windscreen," Holberton said.
Salmon said he could see "small fragments of what looked like a helicopter" in the hotel's courtyard.
Wayne Leonard, who lives about 100 metres from the hotel, said he woke up to a bang.
"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," he said.
"When I went and looked out the window I could see huge big flames on the top of the building."
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is sending a team of investigators.
- ABC
