Scotland Helicopter Crash

[onyx39]

Someone on PPRUNE has just speculated that it is this:

[huffysteve]

dandarez said:

If nobody is injured that will be a miraculous.

Witness said it was police copter spiraling down, rotors not going.
Apparently there is an helipad nearby for amb/police copters.

Helipad is a fair bit away from the crash site

[saaby93]

onyx39 said:

Someone on PPRUNE has just speculated that it is this:

Is that the only one in scotland

wikipedia said:

On 17 February 2002 the three man crew of a Strathclyde police helicopter survived a crash in an 18 month old Eurocopter EC-135.

[oobster]

huffysteve said:

Helipad is a fair bit away from the crash site

Depends what you term a fair bit, if you look on Google earth the police helipad is just slightly further west, along the Broomielaw, just right next to where the Hydro is. In fact, there is a dark blue-and-yellow helicopter sitting at one of the helipads in the google earth picture.

[fjord]

I hate to speculate at such a terrible time, but did some googling on the ec135 (which apparently isn't a great copter for being reliable).

In 2011 this one crashed, and witnesses described at the time, the engine sounded like it was backfiring, as heard tonight.
http://www.rotorpad.com/police-fire-ems/medical-he...

Eventually they confirmed the pilot ran out of fuel after miscalculations.
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04/09/us/pilot-texting...

Maybe it just ran out of fuel somehow?

Lastly, I was looking at all the helicopter crashes in the north sea and around the country from oil-rigs and so forth, they all seem to be Eurocopters. Are eurocopters crap, or do they just have a monopoly over helicopter aviation, so that no other models or manufacturers are really used?

[dxg]

oobster said:

huffysteve said:

Helipad is a fair bit away from the crash site

Depends what you term a fair bit, if you look on Google earth the police helipad is just slightly further west, along the Broomielaw, just right next to where the Hydro is. In fact, there is a dark blue-and-yellow helicopter sitting at one of the helipads in the google earth picture.

Or a few hundred feet in the opposite direction, he'd have been in open parkland...

[Rollcage]

Sounds like it's landed on the roof with a bit of a thump and gone through a few seconds later, rather than smashing straight through.

[ninja-lewis]

saaby93 said:

onyx39 said:

Someone on PPRUNE has just speculated that it is this:

Is that the only one in scotland

wikipedia said:

On 17 February 2002 the three man crew of a Strathclyde police helicopter survived a crash in an 18 month old Eurocopter EC-135.

It is. There was also a fatal crash in 1990 when a leased civilian helicopter used by Strathclyde crashed into a building in bad weather.

[onyx39]

The media and eyewitnesses seem very disappointed that it did not explode,

[davepoth]

Rollcage said:

Sounds like it's landed on the roof with a bit of a thump and gone through a few seconds later, rather than smashing straight through.

That's what seems to have been said, but the photos don't agree IMV.

[TheSnitch]

The area where it has come down is very close to a number of major hospitals, thank god. Terrible thing to happen.

[cat220]

From the pictures on BBC and sky it looks as though its came down tail first, main fuselage looks still to be on the roof! With the tail rotor through the flat roof.

[Zad]

I see Archangel Alex of Salmond has piped up with his "leadership".

Sod off politicians. Please.

[onyx39]

I'm wondering if he had a mechanical failure, tried to bring it inn for an emergency landing, mistook. Flat roof for a car park? If this is the case, he would have had to make a split second decision. If he wanted to ditch it, surely he would have put it in the river?

[dandarez]

Zad said:

I see Archangel Alex of Salmond has piped up with his "leadership".

Sod off politicians. Please.

I think the Devil David of Cameron got in just before Alex.

Does make you want to tell them something, I agree.
At least it is Salmond's country, although I expect some would disagree!

[carinaman]

dandarez said:

Zad said:

I see Archangel Alex of Salmond has piped up with his "leadership".

Sod off politicians. Please.

I think the Devil David of Cameron got in just before Alex.

Does make you want to tell them something, I agree.
At least it is Salmond's country, although I expect some would disagree!

Mr Salmond featured here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03jfc4f

[Laplace]

onyx39 said:

I'm wondering if he had a mechanical failure, tried to bring it inn for an emergency landing, mistook. Flat roof for a car park? If this is the case, he would have had to make a split second decision. If he wanted to ditch it, surely he would have put it in the river?

I'm guessing that's where he was probably heading for before he ran out of altitude.

[onyx39]

Why do sky news keep saying "emergency services responded immediately" what do they usually do, have a cup of tea and a spot of lunch before they turn out??

[onyx39]

Twitter alive with talk of fatalities

R I p

[onyx39]

@STVNews: STV News understands three people have died on board the police helicopter that crashed in Glasgow tonight. http://t.co/FBhpbpcXfY