[Peetwo]

Chopper crash Cairns Esplanade??

Via the ABC News:

Helicopter crashes into roof of Cairns DoubleTree by Hilton hotel in Far North Queensland
By Jessica Black and Conor Byrne

Helicopter reportedly crashes into roof of hotel in Far North Queensland


Hundreds of people have been evacuated after a helicopter crashed into the roof of a Far North Queensland hotel in the early hours of this morning.

Police have declared an emergency around the DoubleTree by Hilton on Cairns Esplanade and evacuated up to 400 people after the crash, which happened shortly before 2am, a Queensland Ambulance Service (QAS) spokeswoman said.

Two of the helicopter's rotor blades came off and landed on the esplanade and in the hotel pool.


Debris from a helicopter crash in Far North Queensland.
Debris from the helicopter landed on the Esplanade. (ABC News: Conor Byrne)

QAS said one man had life-threatening injuries. Two other patients — a man in his 80s and a woman in her 70s — were taken to Cairns Hospital in a stable condition.

Hotel guest Alastair Salmon woke up to "a colossal ear-deafening bang". He and roommate Harry Holberton were on the third floor.

Mr Holberton said the crash felt like a bomb going off, with flames "rising up the side of the building".

"Suddenly all the alarms start going off and then [people] start evacuating with police yelling 'get out, get out, get out'."

Mr Salmon, who had travelled from London, said he first mistook the helicopter's rotor blade for a lamppost.

"Then we looked up there and you could see this massive hole in the window of the building," he said.

The pair were let into the hotel to get their belongings.

"All over the hotel there was debris, parts of a windscreen," Mr Holberton said.


The helicopter crashed into the roof of the DoubleTree by Hilton on Cairns Esplanade.(ABC News: Conor Byrne)

Mr Salmon said he could see "small fragments of what looked like a helicopter" in the hotel's courtyard.

Wayne Leonard, who lives about 100 metres from the hotel, said he woke up to a bang.

"It was very loud — I thought it might have been a tower on top of the building exploding, it was that sort of a sound," he said.

"When I went and looked out the window I could see huge big flames on the top of the building."

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is sending a team of investigators.


The crash was described as sounding like a "bomb". (ABC News: Conor Byrne)

MTF...P2