Helicopter crash in London

[OldJohnnyYen]

I'm hearing reports of a helicopter has crashed into a crane in the vauxhall area of London, does anyone have more info.

[OldJohnnyYen]

It has come down on south Lambeth road near the river tames, it's hit a crane and gone down into the road. 22 emergency vehicles are on scene.

[OldJohnnyYen]

First images here.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2263213/BR...

[mattdaniels]

Helicopter vs crane.

https://twitter.com/craiglet/status/29145820757715...

[anonymous-user]

Just seeing footage on BBC.
Holy st!

[mattdaniels]

Videos already appearing on YouTube of the aftermath

[danyeates]

Umm...this isn't right http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ge9U3Q20Ns

Edited by danyeates on Wednesday 16th January 08:57

[danyeates]

Wow, that's a lot of fuel...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUVdNbiwu-Q

[anonymous-user]

And the inevitable "aviation experts" are out of the woodwork on the BBC.....
"Well, there are any number of reasons why this might have happened and.....and.....and.......we just don't know"

Shut. The. fk. Up.

[mattdaniels]

Crossflow Kid said:

And the inevitable "aviation experts" are out of the woodwork on the BBC.....
"Well, there are any number of reasons why this might have happened and.....and.....and.......we just don't know"

Shut. The. fk. Up.

Have the BBC wheeled out Chris Yates yet? He's normally good value for some bluff and bluster.

[anonymous-user]

mattdaniels said:

Crossflow Kid said:

And the inevitable "aviation experts" are out of the woodwork on the BBC.....
"Well, there are any number of reasons why this might have happened and.....and.....and.......we just don't know"

Shut. The. fk. Up.

Have the BBC wheeled out Chris Yates yet? He's normally good value for some bluff and bluster.

He's busy on SKY news. He'd only just left after his fascinating B787 insights.

"Erm well, erm usually tall buildings have a flashing light on them, erm, erm"

[danyeates]

el stovey said:

mattdaniels said:

Crossflow Kid said:

And the inevitable "aviation experts" are out of the woodwork on the BBC.....
"Well, there are any number of reasons why this might have happened and.....and.....and.......we just don't know"

Shut. The. fk. Up.

Have the BBC wheeled out Chris Yates yet? He's normally good value for some bluff and bluster.

He's busy on SKY news. He'd only just left after his fascinating B787 insights.

"Erm well, erm usually tall buildings have a flashing light on them, erm, erm"

Pretty much, yeah.

"err, it seems the crane was poking out of the top of the building, err"

Nice use of the word "poking"

[mattdaniels]

Ahhh here we go:
[quote]
9:18am
Aviation expert Chris Yates tells Sky News: "Helicopters are not supposed to come within 500ft of any major structure, such as a high-rise building, so we don't know what caused the pilot to come quite so close to that building. We don't know the conditions or whether he misread his instructions from air traffic control."

[/quote]

Fantastic.

[fatboy69]

BBC news reporting that it was an Augusta Westland 109 (I think I heard that correctly) &, sadly, 2 people have died.

[mattdaniels]

Two confirmed dead now.

[OldJohnnyYen]

A Westland 109 is an executive helicopter isn't it?

[anonymous-user]

OldJohnnyYen said:

A Westland 109 is an executive helicopter isn't it?

Yep.
Not wishing to go all "aviation expert" and speculate wildly, but amongst many users (in London) are the Royal Household and people who know the colour of the boathouse in Hereford.

[Chrisgr31]

It was very foggy in London at that time this morning. As I stood on Platform 6 of London Bridge station I could only see the bottom few floors of the Shard. Not sure how well cranes show up on radar but I would assume it was sticking out the top of the building. Very lucky the helicopter didn't come down on the Waterloo main line.

[Eric Mc]

I'm pretty sure the A109 doesn't carry on board radar - and even if it did radar is not used on aircraft as a prime navigation device.

[anonymous-user]

Chrisgr31 said:

Not sure how well cranes show up on radar but I would assume it was sticking out the top of the building.

Helicopters, as a general rule, don't have radar.