The pilot of a helicopter that crashed and caught fire on the roof of the Double Tree Hotel in Cairns, Queensland, Australia, has died. Several other people were injured and four hundred had to be evacuated. As a result of the accident, one of the rotor blades fell into the hotel swimming pool, located several floors below.
The accident occurred at the Double Tree Hotel, a Hilton hotel in the popular tourist resort of Cairns.
Police said the plane's pilot did not survive the crash. The man was pronounced dead, although his body has not yet been formally identified.
“No one on the ground was injured,” reads a statement from Queensland Police, which evacuated the hotel and nearby buildings.
Part of a crashed helicopterAAP
Several other people were injured. Two of them were taken to Cairns Hospital in a stable condition. Police are still trying to determine how many people were in the helicopter.
Helicopter crashes into hotel in Cairns, AustraliaEPA/BRIAN CASSEY
“It sounded like a bomb going off”
“There were reports that it sounded like a bomb went off and that a lot of the hotel residents were very scared when they saw the smoke and the fire,” Caitlin Denning, of the Queensland Emergency Medical Service, told Australian media.
According to media reports, two blades fell off the helicopter's rotor, and one of them landed in the hotel swimming pool located several floors below.
Main image source: EPA/BRIAN CASSEY