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Ed Helicopter Crashes into Glasgow Pub

This helicopter was seen falling vertically, with its rotor blades not turning, before it crashed. That's all we know at this stage. There has been no suggestion of pilot error.

I was at the march and rally in Edinburgh in September, and there was a police helicopter overhead all day. In the afternoon it constantly hovered over the hill where we were standing absolutely packed. There were between 20,000 and 30,000 people there.

Someone turned to me and said, why are we all so laid back about that chopper being there, given the recent safety record of these things? I just shrugged in a "it'll never happen to us" sort of way. And indeed the chopper came into its own when they had to get an ambulance on to the hill for someone in the crowd who had taken ill.

Now, though, the memory of that helicopter gives me the cold shivers.

Rolfe.
 
Rolfe said:
I'm glad to hear your relatives are safe, Craig.

I wish someone would change the title of this thread. Does anyone know if the helicopter pilot is among the dead?
Today is St. Andrew's Day, too. Scotland's national day. Events in the city are being cancelled to alleviate pressure on the emergency services. I wonder, if there had been a serious fatal accident in the USA on the 4th of July, and someone in Scotland had started a thread trying to make a stupid political point about it, whether the Americans would be happy?

Rolfe.
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A friend of mine works for Bond Air, I rang her earlier on and the information she has is that the pilot (who she describes as a dear friend) has died. She is, as you can imagine, very distressed, especially as this has come hard on the heels of the tragic suicide of a woman we were both friends with.

I wish the thread title could be changed; can't people use the huge number of gun deaths to take their cheap potshots at the interminable gun debate rather than hijacking other tragedies which affect members of the forum, their families and friends?
 
Rolfe said:
Someone turned to me and said, why are we all so laid back about that chopper being there, given the recent safety record of these things?
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Still much safer than many other forms of transport. This news has overshadowed another tragic car crash involving multiple teenage fatalities earlier in the week.
 
The BBC page is back to three dead, although reporting that the police have only confirmed one.

I'm sad to learn that the pilot has died. I asked for the thread title to be changed several hours ago, but nothing has been done. Very poor show, when this is quite close to home for a number of people on the forum.

The Google image is celebrating Scotland today, or at least it is from where I am. Sad day for our national day, indeed.

Rolfe.
 
commandlinegamer said:
Still much safer than many other forms of transport. This news has overshadowed another tragic car crash involving multiple teenage fatalities earlier in the week.
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That's very true. Car crashes are ten a penny, unfortunately. Crowded pubs collapsing under the weight of a crashed helicopter, not so much. I think the story has given a lot of people who spend time in crowded entertainment venues the screaming ab-dabs.

Rolfe.
 
newyorkguy said:
When I was in a U.S. Army aviation unit (helicopters) a technique we trained on was called auto rotation. It's a technique used to safely descend when the engine fails by using the air flow through the main rotor blades to slow the helicopter's descent. Just before landing the pilot kicks over the starter to level the ship. If the pilot does it right they can turn a potential crash into a "hard landing."
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How much ability is there to aim the hard landing?
 
geni said:
How much ability is there to aim the hard landing?
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The pub is a couple of hundred yards from a huge open space, Glasgow Green, which could accommodate dozens of helicopters. There must have been a catastrophic failure.
 
commandlinegamer said:
Still much safer than many other forms of transport. This news has overshadowed another tragic car crash involving multiple teenage fatalities arlier in the week.
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Cite? Air travel by airliner, yes. But general aviation pilots can't get life insurance to cover flying.

The safest thing about helicopters is that the norm is only one or two people on board.
 
Gordon Smart, the editor of the Scottish Sun newspaper, has just been on the BBC news saying that he saw the helicopter falling out of the sky "nose over tail" so from that I infer that the pilot had little or no control over where he was going to land.
 
Agatha said:
A friend of mine works for Bond Air, I rang her earlier on and the information she has is that the pilot (who she describes as a dear friend) has died. She is, as you can imagine, very distressed, especially as this has come hard on the heels of the tragic suicide of a woman we were both friends with.

I wish the thread title could be changed; can't people use the huge number of gun deaths to take their cheap potshots at the interminable gun debate rather than hijacking other tragedies which affect members of the forum, their families and friends?
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Yes it was the pilot. My mum works with his aunt and saw her get the news this morning. She was told on the shop floor and she pretty much collapsed. It is awful.
 
Craig B said:
The pub is a couple of hundred yards from a huge open space, Glasgow Green, which could accommodate dozens of helicopters. There must have been a catastrophic failure.
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And it's only across the street from the river Clyde which might have afforded a slightly softer landing. The heliport is just a sort distance downriver, so the helicopter was probably quite low. Not much time to do anything even if there was some degree of control.

My cousin was there right after it happened, but messaged us he was ok. There was a really moving interview on the TV with a man who'd previously been interviewed unable to find what had become of his father. Now he's learned that he was killed.

On the other hand, the most uplifting element has been the interviews with people who describe the moments immediately after the crash when the pub was so filled with dust that you couldn't see, and people spontaneously formed a human chain and passed injured and disoriented people from hand to hand to get them out the door, including one woman who was unconscious.
 
Agatha said:
Gordon Smart, the editor of the Scottish Sun newspaper, has just been on the BBC news saying that he saw the helicopter falling out of the sky "nose over tail" so from that I infer that the pilot had little or no control over where he was going to land.
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Been perusing on http://www.pprune.org. Most reasonable posit thus far suggests a gearbox failure or similar mechanical challenge.

Fitz
 
There is going to be a police statement/press conference at three o'clock. From the sound of things, they know the pilot is dead, and at least two bodies are still lying unrecovered inside the building.

All flags in the country are at half-mast. This happening on St. Andrew's Day has shocked a lot of people. A lot of people are doing their Christmas shopping in Argyle Street, mind you.

Rolfe.
 
cornsail said:
I think it's a satire of those anti-gun threads.
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It obviously is, and one that shows utter contempt for the victims of this accident, as well as the pilot and those aboard the copter.
 
I can't understand why the admins refuse to change the title. There's nothing else on TV here. People are shocked, flags are at half-mast. It's our national day, and was to be the start of a two-month winter festival, but everything is cancelled or being opened with reverent silences.

It appears that the pilot is in fact the confirmed fatality. It's an appalling title.

Rolfe.
 
jj said:
It obviously is, and one that shows utter contempt for the victims of this accident, as well as the pilot and those aboard the copter.
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I want to respond to that but I have no idea if we are allowed to even discuss that.
 
I started a thread in FM about the title.

I reported the OP many hours ago, with a request for the title to be changed. Another title in SI&CE has been changed since then, but not this one. I can only conclude the admins think it's OK.

Rolfe.
 
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