An Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) investigation has found the pilot of a Robinson R44 Raven II helicopter was affected by alcohol when he crashed into a hotel in Cairns in August.
The ATSB has produced an excellent video (embedded below) showing in detail how events transpired in the early hours of 12th August 2024. As a pilot myself, I see these videos as vital in helping to prevent accidents in the future. Although this did not reveal problems with the aircraft or systemic issues with aviation. The reason for this crash was clear.
As authorised ground crew of the operator, the pilot (a NZ citizen and NZ Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) commercial pilot licence holder – helicopter) had access to the helicopter but did not have authority to fly it, especially at night.
For reasons unknown, the pilot took off from Cairns Airport on an erratic flight that ended in his death, the destruction of the aircraft and damage to the hotel. It is fortunate that no one else was injured or killed due to the flying debris which included a large section of the rotor blade found in the park across the road from the hotel.
Small aircraft like the Robinson are generally not equipped with a cockpit voice recorder or flight data recorder. It was fitted with a Garmin aera 660 GPS which provided position and altitude data from the accident flight. This was recovered at the ATSB’s technical facility in Canberra. Airservices Australia provided ground-based radar data of the flight by combining primary surveillance radar (PSR) and secondary surveillance radar (SSR) data into a single, smoothed track.
The ATSB concluded:
“For reasons unknown, pilot actions resulted in a collision with a building while conducting an unauthorised and unnecessary flight, while affected by alcohol, late at night and at low heights over a built-up area, and without night flying endorsements.”