WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A man who died when the helicopter he was flying crashed onto a hotel roof in Australia was an employee of the aviation company that owned the aircraft, but he did not work as a pilot and had not flown in Australia before, the company said Tuesday.
Nautilus Aviation said in a statement that he was a member of its ground crew and while he held a helicopter pilot's license in New Zealand, he was not authorized to fly the company's helicopters. The man's name was not released to the public.
About 400 people were evacuated from the DoubleTree Hilton in the far north Queensland city of Cairns on Monday morning when the helicopter crashed onto the roof and burst into flames.
Two hotel guests were briefly hospitalized for smoke inhalation. No one else on the ground was hurt.
Authorities were investigating how the helicopter was able to take off from Cairns Airport and the man's reason for making the flight, they said in Cairns on Monday. Queensland Police Service Acting Chief Superintendent Shane Holmes said they believed the crash was an isolated incident and there was no ongoing public safety threat.
The man had worked at Nautilus Aviation for four months and had recently been promoted to a ground crew job at another of the company's bases, the company said. Before the crash, the man had attended a social event with colleagues to mark his departure to the new position, it said.
The flight was unauthorized and the helicopter “misappropriated,” the company added.
Cairns Airport CEO Richard Barker said in a statement Tuesday that a review showed “no compromise of our airport fence or access points.”
The airport operated under “a federally approved, multi-layered transport security program,” Barker said.
The crash happened in a busy tourist district of Cairns, a tropical city of 150,000 people where it is currently peak season for holidaymakers.
Witness Veronica Knight walks past a piece of helicopter wreckage in Cairns, Australia, following the crash of the aircraft, Monday, Aug. 12, 2024. (Brian Cassey/AAP Image via AP)
FIORANO MODENESE, Italy (AP) — Lewis Hamilton waved to a crowd of waiting fans on Wednesday as he drove a Ferrari Formula 1 car for the first time since joining the Italian team for the 2025 season.
Hamilton was behind the wheel of a 2023-specification Ferrari SF-23 bearing his racing number, 44, at the team's Fiorano test track, and wore a new helmet design in yellow with a prominent Prancing Horse logo.
Hamilton has shaken up F1 with his move to Ferrari after 12 years with Mercedes, where he won six of his seven world titles. The 40-year-old British driver has said he's fulfilling a childhood dream.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have achieved things in my career I never thought possible, but part of me has always held on to that dream of racing in red. I couldn’t be happier to realize that dream today," he said Monday after arriving at Ferrari's Maranello headquarters for his first day at work with the new team.
F1 tightly restricts teams from testing current-specification cars but the rules are more loose for older cars like the SF-23 that Hamilton drove Wednesday.
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People gather outside the Ferrari track as British driver Lewis Hamilton tests a Ferrari Formula One SF-23, in Fiorano Modenese, Italy, Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
British driver Lewis Hamilton steers a Ferrari Formula One SF-23 at the Ferrari private test track, in Fiorano Modenese, Italy, Wednesday, Jan.22, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
British driver Lewis Hamilton steers a Ferrari Formula One SF-23 at the Ferrari private test track, in Fiorano Modenese, Italy, Wednesday, Jan.22, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)
British driver Lewis Hamilton waves to fans during the first lap with a Ferrari Formula One SF-23 at the Ferrari private test track, in Fiorano Modenese, Italy, Wednesday, Jan.22, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)