Guests in Australia were forced to flee after a helicopter on an "unauthorized flight" crashed into a hotel roof, causing a fiery explosion early Monday.
Nautilus Aviation CEO Aaron Finn confirmed the wrecked aircraft was stolen from its hangar bay at Cairns Airport, according to Australian local media ABC News. All of the company's pilots were accounted for, said Finn.
The unidentified pilot died alone when the helicopter slammed into the DoubleTree by Hilton on Cairns Esplanade around 2 a.m., authorities said, Reuters reported.
Around 400 people were forced to evacuate. A couple – a man in his 80s and a woman in her 70s – were briefly hospitalized for smoke inhalation. They've since been discharged, said authorities.
A pair of rotor blades broke apart from the chopper and landed on the hotel esplanade and in the pool, however there were no injuries on the ground, authorities confirmed.
"We understand the helicopter was only in the air for a very short period of time coming out of the Cairns airport, down across parts of Cairns itself, and then ultimately into the side of the building," Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell told reporters, according to ABC.
"We'll piece that together from not only witness statements and some of the CCTV that have captured it, but equally, what we can actually gather from the crash site itself, any of the recording devices that were on and operable on the helicopter that we can recover now," he said. "When that hits an immovable object, like a building, then that dissipates very quickly."
"We know that in a lot of stages of the flight, from our witness statements, the helicopter was quite low," he added.
"So whether or not that's been picked up by radar, whether the pilot has made any transmissions or not, that's something that we will certainly look into."
It's unclear if the pilot had a license.
