A helicopter yesterday crashed into the top of a Hilton hotel in northeastern Australia, killing the pilot and igniting a fiery explosion on the building’s roof.
Hundreds of patrons were evacuated from the DoubleTree by Hilton in the tropical tourist hub of Cairns after the twin engine helicopter crashed at about 1:50am.
Mangled pieces of the helicopter’s propeller landed in the hotel’s pool, an emergency services official said.
Photo: AFP / Australian Broadcasting Corp
Witness Amanda Kay said that her assistance dog woke her up before the crash, which she watched from her balcony nearby.
“There was a light chopper and it was flying super low, with no clearance lights on,” she said. “It was flying so erratically. There was this huge explosion because it had crashed into the building. It was a big bang.”
Police said the pilot, who was the sole person in the helicopter, died at the scene. Two people who were staying in a room close to where the aircraft crashed were hospitalized for smoke inhalation.
Images showed a bright plume of fire blazing on the hotel’s roof.
‘MADNESS’
“They just flew into that building,” a female voice said in a video shared on social media that captured the aftermath.
“Madness, man,” she added as sirens blared in the background.
“Shivers. People were living in that. It smashed right in,” she said.
Queensland Ambulance supervisor Caitlin Denning said the aircraft’s propellers had “dislodged.”
“One landed on the Cairns Esplanade and there was a second propeller located in the hotel pool on the bottom floor and it was on fire,” she told local media.
“There were reports of it sounding like a bomb, and seeing the fire and smoke, a lot of the occupants of the hotel were unsure of the situation,” she said.
The roof fire was extinguished later yesterday morning.
Cairns is a popular tourist hub that offers a gateway to Australia’s famed Great Barrier Reef.
Australian Transport Safety Bureau Commissioner Angus Mitchell said flying conditions were tricky at the time of the crash, with poor visibility and possibly rain.
“Our job now is to look at the facts that we can gather over the next couple of days, and to establish the sequence of events,” he told reporters. “We want to understand ... what the helicopter was doing at the time, and the nature of the flight.”
A team of experts from the bureau had been dispatched to the crash site, and the bureau appealed for witnesses to come forward if they have “photos or video footage of the aircraft at any phase of the flight,” or if they “heard the helicopter prior to impact.”
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
Former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said if US President Joe Biden had ended his re-election bid sooner, the Democratic Party could have held a competitive nominating process to choose his replacement. “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race,” Pelosi said in an interview on Thursday published by the New York Times the next day. “The anticipation was that, if the president were to step aside, that there would be an open primary,” she said. Pelosi said she thought the Democratic candidate, US Vice President Kamala Harris, “would have done