{"id":16711,"date":"2024-08-13T13:51:38","date_gmt":"2024-08-13T10:51:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviation-news.info\/?p=16711"},"modified":"2024-08-13T13:51:38","modified_gmt":"2024-08-13T10:51:38","slug":"pilot-killed-in-hotel-helicopter-crash-revealed-as-nautilus-aviation-employee-celebrating-promotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviation-news.info\/?p=16711","title":{"rendered":"Pilot killed in hotel helicopter crash revealed as Nautilus Aviation employee celebrating promotion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"css-lwtmuq e4e0a020\">The pilot killed in a helicopter crash at a hotel in far north\u00a0<a class=\"css-11pu0f6 ezegcyi0\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/news\/qld\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\">Queensland<\/a>\u00a0has been identified as New Zealand national Blake Wilson, who had been celebrating his promotion with colleagues in the lead-up to his death, it has been confirmed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-lwtmuq e4e0a020\">The unauthorised flight ended in tragedy at the DoubleTree by Hilton in\u00a0<a class=\"css-11pu0f6 ezegcyi0\" href=\"https:\/\/7news.com.au\/news\/cairns?page=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link-type=\"article-inline\">Cairns<\/a>\u00a0just before 2am on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-lwtmuq e4e0a020\">His employer Nautilus Aviation, which owns the Robinson R44 helicopter involved, has confirmed the man was a current ground crew worker who had been with the company for about four months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-lwtmuq e4e0a020\">It was also revealed Wilson, 23, from Palmerston North on New Zealand\u2019s North Island, had previous flying experience.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-lwtmuq e4e0a020\">\u201cAlthough the employee held a New Zealand (commercial helicopter) pilot\u2019s licence, they have never flown in Australia or for Nautilus Aviation and were not authorised to fly Nautilus Aviation helicopters,\u201d Nautilus Aviation chief executive Aaron Finn said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-lwtmuq e4e0a020\">The company confirmed speculation about a party involving employees and off-duty pilots on Sunday, with Wilson due to move to a new base at Horn Island in the Torres Strait.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-lwtmuq e4e0a020\">\u201cWe can confirm this event did occur and was a privately organised send-off for the individual involved in Monday morning\u2019s incident, who was recently promoted to a ground crew position at another one of our bases,\u201d Finn said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-lwtmuq e4e0a020\">\u201cThis was not a work event and was co-ordinated by friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-lwtmuq e4e0a020\">Finn said the company was working with authorities investigating the crash.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-lwtmuq e4e0a020\">\u201cWe offer our heartfelt condolences to the individual\u2019s family and all who have been affected by this tragedy and continue to offer our support to our employees during this very challenging period,\u201d Finn said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-lwtmuq e4e0a020\">Hundreds of hotel guests were evacuated and two people were taken to hospital after the helicopter crash, which caused a \u201cmassive explosion\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The pilot killed in a helicopter crash at a hotel in far north\u00a0Queensland\u00a0has been identified as New Zealand national Blake Wilson, who had been celebrating his promotion with colleagues in the lead-up to his death, it has been confirmed. The unauthorised flight ended in tragedy at the DoubleTree by Hilton in\u00a0Cairns\u00a0just before 2am on Monday. &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":null,"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[96,102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-featured-en"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.4 (Yoast SEO v27.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pilot killed in hotel helicopter crash revealed as Nautilus Aviation employee celebrating promotion - aviation news<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aviation-news.info\/?p=16711\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pilot killed in hotel helicopter crash revealed as Nautilus Aviation employee celebrating promotion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The pilot killed in a helicopter crash at a hotel in far north\u00a0Queensland\u00a0has been identified as New Zealand national Blake Wilson, who had been celebrating his promotion with colleagues in the lead-up to his death, it has been confirmed. 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