Blake Wilson identified as pilot killed in ‘unauthorised’ chopper crash
A haunting social media post made by a New Zealand national who celebrated a promotion just hours before crashing a helicopter into a Cairns hotel has been revealed.
QLD News
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The man who flew a helicopter that crashed into a Cairns hotel has been identified as New Zealand national and Nautilus Aviation staff member Blake Wilson.
Mr Wilson, believed to be aged in his early 20s, was celebrating a job promotion with friends hours before crashing a Nautilus Aviation helicopter into the Hilton Double Tree Hotel early on Monday morning.
Mr Wilson, from Palmerston North, started working for Nautilus soon after relocating to Australia in March.
Shortly after arriving in Cairns, he posted to Instagram that he was “excited to see what this adventure brings”. His final post was made 10 weeks ago, on May 30, featuring a photo of a Cairns waterfall captioned: “Gotta go to the places that the crocs can’t get ya. Chasing Waterfalls definitely isn’t a bad way to spend days off.”
Mr Wilson announced in September 2022 that he had become a commercial helicopter pilot after “some challenging days in the seat, but all up an incredible experience”.
“Big thanks to @christchurch_helicopters for giving me the opportunity and tools to launch into the start of my career,” he posted on Instagram.
“Also my friends, family, and others who have supported me and helped me fulfil this dream. It’s the closure of the first chapter in this adventure, and I look forward to many more.”
Mr Wilson previously worked as a tour guide at Ultimate Hikes in Queenstown before obtaining his commercial pilots licence through Christchurch Helicopters in 2022, however he was not authorised to fly in Australia.
Hundreds were forced to evacuate the DoubleTree Hotel by Hilton on the Esplanade in Cairns about 1.50am on Monday with a sleeping elderly couple narrowly escaping the terrifying impact.
Nautilus Aviation chief executive Aaron Finn said the company had received confirmation from police about the identity of the individual involved.
“Nautilus Aviation have now received confirmation from the Queensland Police Service (QPS) as to the identification of the individual who gained unauthorised access to our helicopter hangar and misappropriated one of our helicopters,” Mr Finn said.
“Nautilus Aviation can now confirm this person was a current employee in a ground crew position, joining approximately four months ago.
“Although the employee held a New Zealand CPL (H) pilot’s licence, they have never flown in Australia or for Nautilus Aviation and were not authorised to fly Nautilus Aviation helicopters.”
Mr Finn confirmed there was a gathering of some Nautilus Aviation employees, including off-duty pilots, on Sunday night.
“We can confirm this event did occur and was a privately organised send-off for the individual involved in Monday morning’s incident, who was recently promoted to a ground crew position at another one of our bases,” he said.
“This was not a work event and was co-ordinated by friends. Nautilus Aviation have today completed interviews with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) and QPS and have co-operated with full transparency and disclosure of all events leading up to and following the incident on Monday morning.
“We offer our heartfelt condolences to the individual’s family and all who have been affected by this tragedy and continue to offer our support to our employees during this very challenging period.”
Witnesses described seeing the helicopter flying “really low” without lights before hearing a loud bang that looked and sounded like a bomb going off.
Police will investigate all the moments leading up to the R44 Robinson Helicopter, belonging to Nautilus Aviation, being stolen from a general aviation hangar at Cairns Airport before becoming airborne.
It is understood the helicopter was in the air for just four minutes before crashing into the hotel.
Queensland Police Service Acting Chief Superintendent Shane Holmes said every line of inquiry was being conducted to establish how the helicopter was taken.
“The aircraft was moved from a general aviation hangar early (Monday) morning and it was an unauthorised flight,” he said.
“We are working with a local aviation operator to ascertain the circumstances that led to the aircraft becoming airborne just to understand what those contributing factors might have been for this incident to occur.”
Nautilus Aviation – known for tours and private charters, and owned by North Queensland billionaire Chris Morris – confirmed the flight was unauthorised.
The helicopter involved in the crash was a Robinson R44 – a four-seat light aircraft and had no flight plan created.
Nautilus Aviation chief executive Aaron Finn told the Courier Mail there were a lot of people who could have had access to the Airport with CCTV footage too dark and far away to identify who it was.
It is understood it could be days before the person in the helicopter is formally identified.
Australian Transport Safety Bureau Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said his team would look over the facts to establish a sequence of events and figure out if it was a transport safety event or something different.
“We will gather what we can from the scene, from the operator, and once we do have the identity of the person involved, then we will start looking a little more closely on all the things that may have contributed to what unfolded last night,” he said.
“It’s only very early days, I have a team that have come from Brisbane and Canberra and we will spend the next day or so gathering what we can to understand what happened from the time of take off.
“We know that visibility was down at the time with possible rain. We want to understand what the helicopter was equipped without also what the helicopter was doing at the time and any nature of the flight.”
Mr Mitchell said it would be very difficult for someone who didn’t know what they were doing to fly a helicopter.
“It’s certainly very difficult to fly a helicopter if you are not a pilot but we don’t know — until the identity of the individual has been confirmed — the experience level,” he said.
Cairns Airport chief executive Richard Barker defended its security measures.
“The team at Cairns Airport is assisting relevant authorities and we will avoid unnecessary commentary to ensure integrity of the investigation,” he said.
“Cairns Airport operates under a federally approved, multi-layered transport security program. To reassure our community, we wish to confirm a review has been conducted, showing no compromise of our airport fence or access points.
“To allow investigators to do their vital work, we will not provide further comment at this time.”
On Monday afternoon a mobile crane had helped assist most of the clean up in the aftermath of the helicopter crash at DoubleTree by Hilton in Cairns.
By 5.30pm it had begun lifting a large industrial-sized skip bin measuring about 15m in length next to the pool retrieving some debris, before the bin was moved to the roof of the hotel, and the body of the chopper was placed into it about 5.50pm. It was then lowered onto an awaiting truck about 6.20pm.
Investigations are continuing and anyone with information is urged to contact police.
HOTEL TO REMAIN CLOSED
DoubleTree by Hilton at Cairns is expected to remain closed for some time following Monday’s fatal helicopter crash into the hotel.
A spokeswoman for Hilton said hotel staff were still ascertaining the full extent of the damage on Tuesday.
“Due to ongoing investigations and the need for us to ensure that the hotel is completely safe before reopening, we cannot yet provide a definitive reopening date,” the spokeswoman said.
She said an update on reopening would be provided once the investigations and safety assessments were completed.
The spokeswoman said guests who had prepaid for their accommodation would receive refunds for their bookings.
Hotel staff were “doing well” and had been offered support and additional work opportunities with sister hotel – Hilton Cairns – on the Esplanade.
“Time off has been offered to team members who responded to the incident and those who have worked tirelessly since. We have team members currently working across both hotels assisting with operations.”
On Monday, DoubleTree guest Graham Emmett who was staying in room 706 said he believed the room impacted by the chopper crash was 716.
Fellow guests Belinda Simm and Karen Stulz said they had spoken with the couple whose room the helicopter blade crashed into and they were told the window frame had caught on fire, and there was glass all throughout the suite.
Photos of the incident show burn marks and structural damage to the roof of the hotel, while debris was removed from the top, as well as the pool on Monday evening.
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Originally published as Blake Wilson identified as pilot killed in ‘unauthorised’ chopper crash
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