For days, Australians were left wondering about the identity of the pilot who crashed a helicopter into the rooftop of a Cairns hotel. All we knew was that the flight was “unplanned and unauthorised” — or, as some of us might put it, “stolen”.
In the absence of facts, naturally, speculation ran rife, especially whether it might be a case of Coulter’s Law striking again. Was the crash a case of “Hold my beer”, “Goodbye, cruel world”, or even “Allahu ackbar”?
Well, the pilot has finally been identified — and “Hold my beer”, it is.
The pilot who crashed into a Queensland hotel roof has been identified as 23-year-old Blake Wilson, who trained as a helicopter pilot in Christchurch.
Cairns-based Nautilus Aviation chief executive Aaron Finn said that a member of the company’s ground crew misappropriated a helicopter following a staff celebration to mark his promotion.
While it there was speculation that the “low and erratic” flight reported by witnesses suggested a non-pilot, it turns out that Wilson was licensed in New Zealand.
He held a New Zealand commercial helicopter licence but was not authorised to fly in Australia.
He graduated from Christchurch Helicopters in 2022.
The announcement ends days of speculation.
The sole victim of the crash […] was believed to be a current or former employee of Nautilus Aviation with access to the hangar at Cairns Airport.
Nautilus Aviation owner Chris Morris said the company was co-operating with the investigation, and was unable to comment further.
On Monday, chief executive Aaron Finn said all of Nautilus Aviation’s pilots were “safe and accounted for” but was unable to rule out if another employee of the company was responsible.
He revealed the flight was “unplanned and unauthorised” and said it appeared there had been no forced entry to the area in which the helicopter was stored.
Which suggested either an unlocked area, or inside access.
Nautilus Aviation chief executive Aaron Finn […said] all pilots who worked for Nautilus were safe and accounted for, but he could not rule out the possibility someone else in the company was responsible.
“We have quite a lot of staff in the organisation. We can’t identify (the person responsible) from CCTV footage, it’s very dark,” he said […]
A review of the area in question by Cairns Airport also found no compromise of airport security processes.
It remained unclear if the collision with the top floor of the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel on the Cairns Esplanade was deliberate or accidental […]
“You do need to have someone that has quite detailed knowledge of the helicopter itself and how to fly it,” Mr Mitchell told the ABC […]
Authorities remained incredulous that no-one else was killed or badly injured in the incident, with police suggesting it could have had a much worse outcome.
Which is the one thing we can say for certain, at this point. Miraculously, apart from the pilot, nobody was killed or seriously hurt. The only innocent victims are an elderly couple whose hotel room was directly below the impact. The couple were released from Cairns base hospital on Monday, after being treated for shock.
