Scotland Helicopter Crash

[tim0409]

[supersingle]

dandarez said:

Saying now about remarkable no fire (considering fuel onboard) - perhaps it was out of fuel!

Jet fuel isn't really very flammable.

I was under the impression that police choppers were twin engined gas turbine things. Very reliable aircraft, wonder what brought it down?

[onyx39]

Bbc showing.a picture of wreckage clearly showing Police on it

[arp1]

Major incident in Glasgow, Urban Search and Rescue crews in attendance, not a good place to be. Plenty Fire engines in Glasgow so they will be well looked after and the incident will be well attended.

[dudleybloke]

bloody hell.

[fjord]

supersingle said:

Jet fuel isn't really very flammable.

I was under the impression that police choppers were twin engined gas turbine things. Very reliable aircraft, wonder what brought it down?

I don't know the exact specifics, but they're all Eurocopter EC135's. I think there's some variation between forces.

[onyx39]

Gearbox?

Annoys me that an MP is clearly using the fact he is there to his advantage.

[davepoth]

supersingle said:

Jet fuel isn't really very flammable.

I was under the impression that police choppers were twin engined gas turbine things. Very reliable aircraft, wonder what brought it down?

Gearbox has to be the immediate suspect. There's no way that this was a controlled landing.

[whoami]

onyx39 said:

Gearbox?

Annoys me that an MP is clearly using the fact he is there to his advantage.

[MonkeyHanger]

onyx39 said:

Gearbox?

Annoys me that an MP is clearly using the fact he is there to his advantage.

Radio Clyde are saying he's got blood on him from helping to get people out.

Blatant self promotion, obviously

[tim0409]

onyx39 said:

Gearbox?

Annoys me that an MP is clearly using the fact he is there to his advantage.

A bit unfair - he was at the scene and helped casualties. Jim Murphy has always struck me as a decent guy.

[Flatinfourth]

davepoth said:

supersingle said:

Jet fuel isn't really very flammable.

I was under the impression that police choppers were twin engined gas turbine things. Very reliable aircraft, wonder what brought it down?

Gearbox has to be the immediate suspect. There's no way that this was a controlled landing.

Maybe, either way wouldn't be nice trying to autorotate down in the dark.

Thoughts to all on board/families

[onyx39]

tim0409 said:

A bit unfair - he was at the scene and helped casualties. Jim Murphy has always struck me as a decent guy.

Fair enough, I'll take that one back, was judging him as I judge all MPs, and I'm usually right!

[number 46]

Strange that people say the engines were spluttering before it dropped out of the sky, could it have run out of fuel??? Doesn't sound like a tail rotor gearbox failure?? Is this a twin engine chopper? Wonder if he was trying to get back to the heli pad?

[whoami]

number 46 said:

Strange that people say the engines were spluttering before it dropped out of the sky, could it have run out of fuel??? Doesn't sound like a tail rotor gearbox failure?? Is this a twin engine chopper? Wonder if he was trying to get back to the heli pad?

It's a twin engined helicopter.

[Zad]

Witness on the phone to BBC News said they heard what sounded like an engine repeated backfiring, and looked up to see the heli "falling like a stone" with the rotor not turning. Its possible that a single engine failure would spit out debris which engine 2 re-ingests (I have seen this happen to a Bolkow 105) stalling the compressor which causes it to go bang-bang-bang is it flames out and reignites. Not sure this would cause the gearbox to lock and stop the rotors turning.

An alternative is that it was low and the rotor hit something. Mention was made of a 10-storey building nearby, but the eye witness said the heli was above 500ft or so when they first saw it.

[carinaman]

I thought the MP said he was driving past when he was on the 23.00 BBC Radio News.

[onyx39]

number 46 said:

Strange that people say the engines were spluttering before it dropped out of the sky, could it have run out of fuel??? Doesn't sound like a tail rotor gearbox failure?? Is this a twin engine chopper? Wonder if he was trying to get back to the heli pad?

Was thinking of main rotor gearbox. Reports say the main rotor was not spinning.

[dxg]

I expect, if he was coming up the river from the west, that he'd have been trying to get to the open ground at Glasgow green. Almost made it...

[number 46]

I wonder if it was a flame out? But would both engine go? but main rotor not turning seems like gearbox, perhaps he was too low to do much about it? Pretty horrendous.