A rescue worker carries a stretcher near the wreckage of a police helicopter, which crashed onto the roof of the Clutha Vaults pub in Glasgow, Scotland, yesterday.
GLASGOW: Eight people have been confirmed dead and 14 are seriously injured in hospital after a police helicopter crashed into a busy pub in Glasgow city centre.
Air accident investigators were examining the wreckage of the helicopter yesterday to discover why it lost power and plummeted into the Clutha Vaults pub on Stockwell Street, a short distance north of the river Clyde, on Friday night.
Sir Stephen House, the chief constable of Police Scotland, confirmed the deaths yesterday afternoon.
Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister, said: “This is a black day for Glasgow and for Scotland. Our condolences go to those who will be bereaved, our solidarity with those who have been injured. But it’s also St Andrew’s Day and it’s a day we can take pride and courage in how we respond to adversity and tragedy, and the response from our emergency services and ordinary citizens has been exemplary.”
The Eurocopter EC135 T2 was piloted by a civilian and was carrying two police officers when it crashed at 10.25pm. It landed on the Clutha Vaults pub, where more than 100 people were listening to a folk-ska band called Esperanza who were playing as the roof collapsed. Rescuers battled to find survivors. Worried relatives gathered at the police cordon desperate for news of their loved ones.
Asked if there were people still alive trapped inside, House replied: “We can’t say that definitively at this moment in time.”
Witnesses said the helicopter dropped like a stone, while people inside the pub heard a heavy thud before the roof caved in and the air filled with dust and screams.
After passers-by did what they could to get the wounded to safety, emergency services worked through the night in a bid to recover people from the wreckage.
Witnesses at the scene said the helicopter appeared to have smashed through the top of the club, with a rotor blade sticking out of the roof. The site by the River Clyde had been cordoned off, with emergency service workers erecting a tarpaulin over where the helicopter hit.
“We’re still in a search and recovery phase, and as always our prayers are that it is successful and we do recover people alive,” House said. “There are people on the scene trying to make contact with anyone who may be alive. It is an unclear situation.”
Scottish flags on government buildings were to fly at half-mast for the rest of the weekend.
Witnesses told of confusion, terror and then bravery after the accident. Grace MacLean, who was inside the club, said people were listening to a ska band. “There was like a ‘whoosh’ noise — there was no bang, there was no explosion,” she told the BBC. “And then there was some smoke, what seemed like smoke. The band were laughing and we were all joking that the band had made the roof come down.
“They carried on playing and then it started to come down more and someone started screaming and then the whole club just filled with dust. You couldn’t see anything, you couldn’t breathe.”
Britain’s former Europe minister Jim Murphy told the BBC he was driving through the area shortly after the incident. “I jumped out and tried to help. There were people with injuries. Bad gashes to the head. Some were unconscious,” he said.
The opposition lawmaker said he and others formed a human chain to get survivors out of the bar. Gordon Smart, who edits the Scottish edition of The Sun newspaper, said he saw the helicopter coming down at great speed. “There was no fireball and I did not hear an explosion. It fell like a stone. The engine seemed to be spluttering” he told Sky News Television.
British Prime Minister David Cameron called it a “tragic event” as he thanked the emergency services and praised the “bravery of the ordinary Glaswegians” who rushed to help.
Struan Johnston, of the aviation consultancy Caledonian Aviation, said that judging from the evidence he could see, the helicopter’s pilot had possibly made a controlled landing on the roof which had then collapsed under the weight of the aircraft. He said the aircraft has a form of rubber bladder within the fuel tanks to help prevent an explosion in a crash, which may explain why there was no explosion when it hit the pub roof.
The Guardian/AFP
