by Derek O’Brien
Monday 12th August 2024, Double Tree Hilton Hotel, Cairns
1.00 am: I was in bed …. suddenly we all heard a huge bang on the top of the building. Smoke and ash filled the air. A helicopter had crashed onto the hotel! One life was lost!! Two elderly people from our tour group were hospitalised, they had no injuries even though their room was directly under the point where the helicopter hit. The police described their room as a disaster zone with glass covering everything. Luckily no one was hurt.
Mum [Roseanne O’Brien] was woken by the sound of a huge tree coming down and of smashing glass. She dashed over and opened her curtains. Her window was open and there were flames and heat right outside, so she shut her window fast. We knew we needed to let someone know!
We went to the lobby of the hotel and saw one of the staff pressing buttons for the alarm and the announcement, “THIS IS NOT A DRILL, EVACUATE THE BUILDING, REPEAT THIS IS NOT A DRILL, EVACUATE, EVACUATE!” We were very scared. We were sent outside; I was in my PJ’s with bare feet and Mum had on her PJ’s with bed socks. The safety officer told us all to “please move on, you can’t stay here, keep moving”. It was raining. We finally got to where we were allowed to stop under some cover, we were wet and cold and scared. The police did a roll call to make sure everyone was out of the hotel.
We were then told to walk the further three blocks to the Hilton where we could rest up. We were there until 2.00pm that afternoon. The Hilton was very good with water, tea and coffee we were also given breakfast and lunch. Finally, still damp, we were able to go back to the Double Tree for our bags and a quick change of clothing. We then moved to Riley’s for the night, then our tour of Cairns and Cooktown continued.