A helicopter crashed onto the roof of the Hilton Hotel in Cairns, northern Australia, on Monday, killing the pilot and sparking a fire that prompted a mass evacuation, police said.
“The pilot and sole occupant of the aircraft has been located and pronounced dead, and forensic assessments are underway to formally identify him,” police said in a press release.
Emergency services said one of the helicopter's blades fell into the hotel's swimming pool, and said two injured people were taken to hospital and were in stable condition.
Another fan fell onto the front lawn of the building, Caitlin Denning, a local emergency manager, told reporters.
According to police, none of the people on the ground were injured.
Hundreds of guests were evacuated from the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Cairns after the incident, which occurred in the middle of the night at around 1:50 a.m. local time (11:50 a.m. Sunday in Quebec).
Investigators from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau were sent to the scene.
Videos on social media showed flames rising from the roof of the hotel, while sirens blared.
“I shudder. People lived there. [L’appareil] “I just bumped into her,” a woman says in one of the videos.
Located in tropical north Queensland, Cairns is a popular tourist destination and gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.
