Nautilus Aviation said the man who flew the chopper had been an employee for four months in a ground-crew position.
Police on Tuesday said they believe the man was 23-year-old Blake Wilson from the Cairns suburb of Smithfield.
According to Wilson’s Facebook page he’s from Palmerston North and trained to be a pilot at Christchurch Helicopters, and he worked at Queenstown's Coronet Peak skifield for a time.
Palmerston North Boys' High School rector David Bovey told RNZ Wilson was a former student, who finished studying there in 2018.
"He was a good fella, Blake," he said.
"He was academically pretty good, I think he got all levels of NCEA with a merit endorsement, but he was a friendly, personable young man."
Wilson was involved in "all sorts of things", played tennis, and was a mentor to a junior class, said Bovey.
"He just a just a good all round fella."
The news was tragic for everyone who knew Wilson, he said.
"It'll hit the staff because ... I mean, it's not that long ago that Blake was here, they'll know Blake, and they'll be feeling it," he said.
"It's always terribly sad when when somebody this age dies and in such a tragic accident.
"It's just really, really sad for his family."
A friend of Wilson's, who RNZ has agreed not to name, said he worked with Wilson in Queenstown.
"He was a really lovely guy, one of the best out there".
The charter company said Wilson had a New Zealand pilot's licence but had never flown in Australia and was not authorised to use a Nautilus Aviation helicopter.
"Nautilus Aviation have now received confirmation from the Queensland Police Service as to the identification of the individual who gained unauthorised access to our helicopter hangar and misappropriated one of our helicopters," the company said in a statement.
"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," the statement said.
"This was not a work event and was co-ordinated by friends."
The helicopter left on an "unauthorised" flight from Nautilus Aviation's hangar at Cairns airport early on Monday morning, crashing into a hotel roof about 2am.
Mr Wilson - the sole occupant - died after the helicopter struck the roof of DoubleTree by Hilton in Cairns' CBD, prompting the evacuation of hundreds of guests.
Two guests - a man in his 80s and a woman in her 70s - were taken to hospital for smoke inhalation and have been released.
Nautilus representatives completed interviews with the Australian Transport Safety Bureau and police, co-operating with "full transparency" about the events.
"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," the statement said.
"We ask that the media respect the privacy of our employees during this time."
Investigators resumed work on Tuesday in a bid to shed light on the circumstances after the helicopter's wreckage was removed from the hotel.
Authorities had previously declined to say if the person flying the chopper had a licence or how it was flown out of Cairns airport without authorisation.
The helicopter was seen flying for at least five minutes in the Cairns CBD before it crashed into the hotel roof, smashing the windows of nearby rooms with one occupied by a sleeping elderly couple.
An aviation expert said night flying required more concentration and could have contributed to the crash.
"If it was an accident, it probably was a factor that it was in darkness," aviation lawyer Peter Carter told AAP.
Investigators had hoped to know more about the flight after recorded data from the helicopter was sent for analysis.
Propellers were dislodged when the helicopter hit the roof with one landing on the street outside and the other in the hotel pool while still on fire, prompting the evacuation of up to 400 guests.
Bureau Chief Commissioner Angus Mitchell said it was "miraculous" that no one else was hurt.
"It certainly could have been a lot worse," he told ABC Radio.
- AAP/RNZ
