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

Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A man who died when the helicopter he was flying crashed onto a hotel roof in Queensland, Australia, was an employee of the aviation company that owned the aircraft but didn’t work as a pilot and hadn’t flown in Australia before. Nautilus Aviation said Tuesday he was a member of its ground crew, and while he held a helicopter pilot’s license in New Zealand he wasn’t authorized to fly the company’s helicopters. About 400 people were evacuated from the DoubleTree Hilton in the far north Queensland city of Cairns on Monday when the helicopter hit the roof.