This paper describes quasi-elastic neutron scattering experiments on the Al₅₀Cu₃₅Ni₁₅ alloy performed on the IRIS spectrometer at ISIS, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, and on the MIBEMOL spectrometer at Laboratoire Léon Brillouin, Saclay. The aim was to investigate if atomic hopping motions are restricted only to occur in systems with quasicrystalline local order. It is found that frequent jumps of Cu and Ni atoms between different interstitial lattice positions on the time scale 1 to 100 ps are taking place in this alloy at high temperature. This is the same time scale that has been found earlier in quasicrystals and it suggests that this kind of motion is likely to take place in any metallic alloy at high temperature and that it is not a special property of quasicrystals.