Man who died flying a helicopter that crashed on Cairns hotel roof had not flown in Australia before

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)

PARIS (AP) — French rescue officials said Tuesday they found the bodies of two Italian and two South Korean climbers close to the peak of Mont Blanc on the French side after they went missing over the weekend in bad weather.

The Chamonix-Mont Blanc search and rescue team found the two pairs of climbers at an altitude of 4,700 meters (more than 15,400 feet) on the Alps’ highest peak. They died of hypothermia, rescue officials said.

The unaccompanied climbers had alerted rescuers on Saturday afternoon, but weather conditions continued to deteriorate, preventing rescuers from reaching their location from the ground or by helicopter.

Two other Korean climbers were successfully rescued on Sunday morning at an altitude of 4,100 meters (more than 13,400 feet) after rescuers deployed a highly complex operation.

French authorities have opened an investigation.

FILE - This Feb. 19, 2003 file photo shows Mont Blanc, western Europe's highest mountain. (AP Photo/Patrick Gardin, File)