Helicopter crashes into Glasgow pub

[Touring Mars]

Apparently a helicopter has crashed into the Clutha Vaults pub on the banks for the River Clyde in Glasgow...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-25163045

Early reports suggest that there are many people injured, but no details have emerged yet.

The Clutha sits on a street corner, and, unusually for central Glasgow, has no flats or properties above it... pictures seem to suggest that the helicopter has crashed into the roof of the building, but it would have been perilously close to residential buildings...

The BBC are reporting just now that it may have been a police helicopter...

edit: It appears that it was the police helicopter (which is usually based just a few hundred yards from my flat in Glasgow) that has fallen out of the sky and gone straight through the roof of the pub

Shocking incident...

 

[Grayfox]

3 confirmed dead.

Question is how the hell does a heli crash like that.

 

[Azuremen]

3 confirmed dead.

Question is how the hell does a heli crash like that.

Probably something along the lines of mechanical failure, as suggested by a witness

Gordon Smart, editor of the Scottish Sun, told the BBC:

I can't really believe what's happened. I was on the phone at the time and I heard a misfiring engine. Looked above me, couldn't work out where it was coming from, it got louder and louder and I just spotted a helicopter falling from the sky.

It was falling at great speed. It looked like the rotors weren't spinning but the helicopter was sort of turning in a strange position and dropping at great speed. Oddly enough there was no explosion no fire ball.

It's a busy Friday night, a lot of people have been out in the pubs, there are a lot of pubs in that area. I do fear… I would be staggered if there weren't fatalities from the area it's landed.

 

[homeforsummer]

BBC news is pretty much doing wall-to-wall coverage of it this morning. 32 in hospital with non-life-threatening injuries so far.

Their coverage is appalling though. It's turned into one of those incidents where people don't really know a great many details so they're just filling space with stuff like "there are currently firefighters on the roof", which is bloody obvious because they're on screen, and doing the "just to confirm, 32 people are in hospital" three times through the course of a piece to camera.

It's a shocking incident but I'm not sure it really warrants blanket coverage when there aren't enough details to fill a report.

 

[F1 fan]

Terrible news. I hope the rescue goes smoothly.

Question is how the hell does a heli crash like that.

Do you read?

Edit: HFS, you're right about the BBC's coverage. Watching it on their site now. They keep changing their mind. One minute, the death toll is three, the next it's one.

 

[Grayfox]

Do you read?

Edit: HFS, you're right about the BBC's coverage. Watching it on their site now. They keep changing their mind. One minute, the death toll is three, the next it's one.

My net is capped but I read it on another site.

They didn't say how, just 3 dead after a police heli crashed into a pub.

 

[Dotini]

The fatalities seem to be limited to the civilian pilot and two officers aboard the chopper. We are worse for their loss.

It is too easy to take for granted any inherent safety in helicopter operations. The pilots must be highly skilled and the craft well maintained at all times. All this costs money.

An investigation will be pursued to determine the cause. Some introspection will occur to see if the risks were well justified.

 

[Grayfox]

Dont know if police helicopters have black box recorders on board unless scottish law says any goverment/state air craft must have them.

 

[Touring Mars]

The BBC are now reporting that 8 people have been killed and 14 are seriously injured... a terrible incident, although the eye-witness reports seem quite conflicting as to what exactly happened. Thoughts and condolences are with anyone affected.

 

[Keef]

3 confirmed dead.

Question is how the hell does a heli crash like that.

Not to be funny but helicopter engine and rotor systems are so complicated I'm surprised they don't drop like flies. There's a million fragile systems that could go wrong and if anything happens at low altitude over an urban area - pretty much where most helicopters operate - there's virtually no time or place for an emergency landing.

 

[homeforsummer]

Sigh. Was only a matter of time, wasn't it?

 

[BobK]

They've reached the point where I'm not sure even their own members take themselves seriously.

Oh wait, we have that pale & geeky dude.

 

[Keef]

They've reached the point where I'm not sure even their own members take themselves seriously.

Oh wait, we have that pale & geeky dude.

News flash: Westboro Baptist Church blames gay marriage for reaching the point where nobody is sure if their own members take themselves seriously.

 

[Inferno251]

Sigh. Was only a matter of time, wasn't it?

Its amazing how they can fabricate, out of all things, the Bible and use it as a weapon to go against everyone that aren't them.

Morons