Cairns helicopter crash: Nautilus Aviation pilot had New Zealand licence, chopper company addresses rumours

The man who stole a helicopter and crashed it into a hotel in Cairns, Australia, had a New Zealand pilot’s licence.

The incident in which the pilot died happened at the DoubleTree by Hilton about 2am Monday.

Nautilus Aviation, a helicopter tour company, said the pilot was one of its employees. The business said the person had only begun working for it about four months ago and was not authorised to fly helicopters for the business.

“Although the employee held a New Zealand CPL(H) pilot’s licence, they have never flown in Australia or for Nautilus Aviation and were not authorised to fly Nautilus Aviation helicopters,” the company said in a statement.

“We will be leaving the release of the individual’s details to QPS [Queensland Police Service].”

A Queensland Police Service spokeswoman told the Herald they could not confirm the person’s identity and “police will carry out all lines of inquiry”.

Nautilis Aviation said there had been a celebration with other staff the night before the crash.

“We would like to address rumours regarding a gathering of some Nautilus Aviation employees, including off-duty pilots, on Sunday night.

“We can confirm this event did occur and was a privately organised send-off for the individual involved in Monday morning’s incident, who was recently promoted to a ground crew position at another one of our bases.

“This was not a work event and was co-ordinated by friends.”

Cairns Airport chief executive Richard Barker released a statement saying a review was being done, according to news.com.au.

“Cairns airport operates under a federally approved, multi-layered transport security program,” Barker said.

“To reassure our community, we wish to confirm a review has been conducted, showing no compromise of our airport fence or access points.

“To allow investigators to do their vital work, we will not provide further comment at this time.”

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is investigating the incident.

Nautilus Aviation said it had already been interviewed by the ATSB and Queensland Police and “have co-operated with full transparency and disclosure of all events leading up to and following the incident”.

“We will continue to work very closely with Queensland Police and the ATSB as they investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.

“We offer our heartfelt condolences to the individual’s family and all who have been affected by this tragedy and continue to offer out support to our employees during this very challenging period.

“We will be making no further comment at this time.”