Pilot of helicopter that crashed on Australian hotel roof was affected by alcohol, probe finds

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A pilot killed when a helicopter crashed on the roof of an Australian hotel two months ago was affected by alcohol and was not qualified to fly at night, an investigation concluded.

Two hotel guests were briefly hospitalized for smoke inhalation and 400 people had to evacuated from the hotel following the crash in the tropical city of Cairns on Aug. 12.

The four-minute flight had not been authorized and there were no airworthiness factors that likely contributed to the Robinson R44’s crash, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said in its final report Thursday.

The pilot, Blake Wilson, a 23-year-old New Zealand citizen, had been employed by the helicopter’s operator Nautilus Aviation since April.

He had Australian and New Zealand commercial pilot licenses and had flown R44 helicopters before. But he was employed by Nautilus as a ground handler and did not have qualifications to fly at night, the report said.

“The flight was a purposeful act, but there was no evidence to explain the pilot’s intentions,” the report said.

Wilson had been due to be transferred by Nautilus on the day he died to an island 800 kilometers (500 miles) from Cairns. He had been drinking with colleagues and friends at several Cairns bars before returning to his apartment the night before his intended departure.

A toxicology report indicated he had a “significant blood-alcohol content” when he died. The report doesn’t specify a level of concentration, but said he was “affected by alcohol.”

Wilson had traveled from his apartment to Cairns Airport, used as security code to enter a Nautilus hangar then flew a helicopter toward Cairns, a city of 150,000 people and a popular tourist gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.

He flew over