London Helicopter Crash

[glennda]

Would point more to the crane not being lit properly?

 

Amazed the crash missed the high building all around the area, if that was intentional by the pilots then they are true heroes

 

From what I have read and discussed (a Colleague here does does helicopter trips under one of the Helicopter companies out of Redhill who the pilot had done work for).

 

1. Pilot took off from Redhill for Hertfordshire and requested to be diverted to London Heliport in Battersea due to bad weather

2. The Crane which should be lit 24/7 has had multiple complaints about the fact that the light was not on/not bright enough (to both the Met Police and the developers)

3. The Helicopter is twin-engine and can survive one engine failing (which from the reports hasn't happened)

4. London Fire Brigade where on-site within 4 mins of the 999 call and managed to pull somebody from a burning car alive. (Source)

 

It appears to be a tragic accident that this pilot has not for whatever reason seen the crane and hit it halfway along its boom arm which has caused catastrophic damage to the helicopter causing the accident.

Edited January 16, 2013 by glennda

[Oaktech]

Interesting...

 

A spokeswoman for Berkeley Homes, the company behind the St George Wharf development, said she would not speculate if a light on the crane, which is meant to be on 24 hours to alert pilots, was on at time of the crash.

 

Residents have raised complaints about it not being lit.

 

Source: BBC News - London helicopter crash: Two die in Vauxhall crane accident

[psydii]

I see the tower regularly. There are lights on the tower, though they don't appear particularly bright to me, but they could of course be designed not to dazzle from the ground. Whether the crane was lit is a probably a red herring in regard to what happened. The crane is so close to the building, that the question is not why did he hit the crane, but why was he so close to the tower. Though I suppose if the boom was pointing outwards he *may* have thought he was clear, but he'd still have been unnecessarily close to the building. (in my totally unqualified opinion)

 

This must have been a textbook incident response. Aircraft crash in a major metropolitan area in rush hour, less than a couple of minutes from two major hospitals and fire-station. So lucky that it wasn't much much worse. It came down meters from the mainline into/out of Waterloo.

 

This is the second major incident that the crew from the old LFBHQ has been within walking distance of in the last 18 months. (Fire at Salamanca Tower near Albert Embankment [15 July 2011])

 

As you might imagine there is still quite a lot of disruption around the roads leading SW from Vauxhall Gyratory, and most of Vauxhall Bus station is closed.

 

There are now reports that the crane lights have been said to be 'checked daily, and found to be ok yesterday' not, I note, '...and they were on.'

[MatthewL]

One thing to note is that LFB are looking to closing/making changes to 12 stations out of the 113 they have and the area in which this happened is due to loose its station so attendances times could of been alot longer!

[elsiegee40]

Interesting...

 

 

 

Source: BBC News - London helicopter crash: Two die in Vauxhall crane accident

According to 'experts' PM on Radio 4 this evening, the natural light at that time of day and the fog combined would have made the lights useless whether they were on or not.

[rad]

I believe there was a notice to pilots issued informing them about the crane. Ie a memo of issues in the area.

[CAM]

Unfortunately he was diverted, so he would not have had full knowledge of the route. It's possible he didn't know about the crane on his new flight path and gone straight into it.

[Arthur]

a colleague here does helicopter trips under one of the helicopter companies out of Redhill who the pilot had done work for.

The helicopter that crashed looks like it was from Rotor Motion...

 

www.rotormotion.com/index.php/fleet/1998-model-agusta-a109e-power/

[6Foot2]

Preliminary report into the accident by The Air Accidents Investigation Branch [11 page PDF]

 

Link: Special Bulletin S1/2013 - Agusta A109E, G-CRST

Summary:

 

The helicopter was flying to the east of Battersea Heliport when it struck the jib of a crane, attached to a building development at St George Wharf, at a height of approximately 700 ft in conditions of reduced meteorological visibility. The pilot, who was the sole occupant of the helicopter, and a pedestrian were fatally injured when the damaged helicopter impacted a building and adjacent roadway. This Special Bulletin presents facts determined up to the time of issue and offers no analysis.