We would like to address rumours regarding 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,
You can appreciate that an almost three-quarters of a tonne helicopter going into the side of a building is going to result in a lot of catastrophic damage,
Gotta go to the places that the crocs can't get ya,
Casual Wednesday on a day off
He was a great employee, we had no concerns about his well being or his mental state,
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.
We'll spend the next couple of days going through witness statements interviewing the operator and trying to build a better picture,
We understand it has taken off from Cairns Airport and it's done one lap down through Cairns
Our thoughts are with all affected by the distressing incident at Cairns Esplanade yesterday,
One of the focuses of the inquiry ...(is) how sufficient that method of security is,
It could have been a student pilot or a licensed pilot ... a former employee, perhaps,
Flying a helicopter, getting it up off the ground, isn’t something that anyone could do,
It’s miraculous … It certainly could have been a lot worse,
Police went to great lengths to reassure the public here that they believe it is a one-off incident and there’s nothing else behind this, because things like this are unsettling,
It was like an army helicopter but faster,
There is no further threat to the community, and we believe this is an isolated incident,
All the pilots have been accounted for."
We can't identify (the person responsible) from CCTV footage, it's very dark,
Our job now is to look at the facts that we can gather over the next couple of days, and to establish the sequence of events,