Investigations are continuing at the Cairns hotel where a helicopter crashed, killing its pilot, in the early hours of Monday morning. Nautilus Aviation, the owners of the helicopter, have confirmed the flight was unauthorised and Cairns airport is also reviewing its security arrangements as police try to figure out how the helicopter was accessed.
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00:00Investigators are looking at different aspects, including why the helicopter was actually
00:05in the air at 2 o'clock Monday morning at all when this crash occurred on the Cairns
00:11Esplanade at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel behind me.
00:14We understand that the helicopter was taken from a General Aviation hangar at the Cairns
00:19Airport then flew towards the Cairns CBD before crashing in this building behind me.
00:25There are different aspects of the investigation.
00:28The Australian Transport Safety Bureau will look at whether there were any mechanical
00:32or aircraft issues that led to the crash, but there will also be police investigations
00:37around security at Cairns Airport and why the hangar was able to be accessed and how
00:41the helicopter was able to be taken from the site.
00:44The company that owns the helicopter Nautilus Aviation has described the helicopter as stolen
00:50and said the flight was unauthorised, but they've also said that all their pilots are
00:55accounted for.
00:56So there'll be questions around how that aircraft was able to be accessed.
01:00The Cairns Airport's reviewed its security arrangements.
01:03It says it's got a multi-layered security process and it's confident that there hasn't
01:07been any compromise.
01:09It's expected to take four to six weeks for the ATSB's preliminary report to be finalised,
01:14but investigations are continuing here at the scene for a second day today.