Helicopter pilot dies after crashing into hotel in Australia

A pilot has died after their helicopter crashed into the roof of a hotel in the north Queensland city of Cairns.

The plane crashed into the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel at about 1:50 a.m. local time on Monday (4:50 a.m. Sunday), causing a fire and forcing hundreds of guests to evacuate.

Queensland Police confirmed the sole person on board the helicopter died at the scene.

The state ambulance service said two hotel guests – a man in his 80s and a woman in her 70s – were taken to hospital in stable condition.

Amanda Kay, who was staying at a hotel on Cairns’ main thoroughfare, described seeing a helicopter flying “very low” with no lights in rainy weather.

“[It] turned around and crashed into the building,” she said, adding that the plane “blew up.”

According to the Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS), two rotor blades of the helicopter fell off on impact, landing on the hotel’s boulevard and swimming pool.

“There were reports that it sounded like a bomb, and [that after] “When we saw the smoke and flames coming from there, a lot of people in the hotel were very concerned about the situation,” QAS Far North Region senior operations supervisor Caitlin Dennings told media.

Another hotel guest, Alastair Salmon, described it to the ABC as “a deafening bang”.

Mr Salmon, from London, said after being evacuated he initially mistook the helicopter blades for lampposts.

“Then we looked up there and saw a big hole in the window of the building,” he told ABC.

Streets around the hotel have been blocked off and police have declared a state of emergency.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau said it was sending investigators to the scene.

Located in northern Queensland, the city of Cairns is a popular tourist destination due to its proximity to the Great Barrier Reef.