A helicopter crashed into the roof of a hotel in Cairns, causing a massive fireball that required the evacuation of up to 400 people.
At around 1:50 a.m., emergency services were called to the Double Tree Hotel by Hilton because an aircraft accident was reported.
A passerby said the helicopter was flying at incredible speed before crashing into the hotel.
“It looked like it was being driven like a race car at full speed or like a dive bomber… a small helicopter,” they wrote on social media.
Shortly after 2 a.m., paramedics were called to the scene of the accident and examined a male patient with life-threatening injuries.
Another man in his 80s and a woman in her 70s were treated and taken to Cairns Hospital in a stable condition. Seven reports the pair were in the room below the crash site and were treated for shock.
Caitlin Dennings, senior operations manager for Queensland Ambulance Service Far Northern Region, said witnesses told her the incident “sounded like a bomb”.
“The helicopter struck the roof of the hotel, however two propellers came off the helicopter which landed on the Cairns Esplanade and a second propeller was in the hotel’s ground floor pool,” she told the Cairns Post.
Police issued a Public Safety Act (PSPA) and advised the public to avoid the area.
The PSPA exclusion zone includes Esplanade, Minnie Street, Abbott Street and Florence Street.
More to follow.
