Helicopter Crashes Into Glasgow Pub

[thehappyotter]

Cheers Keith, it's been a busy old year but I'm hoping to be back around a bit more again soon. Hope you're well.

There's a number of suspected causes being batted around at the moment, all of which are nothing more than educated guesses in reality. The fleet hasn't been grounded and it's ops normal at the moment. We were on shift when the news of the crash came in and made a crew decision that we'd get right back on the bike and go flying.

It's not a nice thing to happen. I rapidly learned that everyone in the police aviation community knows everyone else and if they don't they know someone who does. It's a very close knit and small world.

The danger of death is well respected, it's acknowledged, everything is done to minimise it but it has to be accepted. It's the deaths of the public which I find most upsetting, it goes against everything police aviation stands for and is totally tragic.

Anyway, I start work at 5 so I best get going, I'll raise a to everyone involved when I get back in the morning.

[dfarrow]

Condolences to all involved . Spent a long time based and night stopping in Glasgow . Being English ; was a stranger in a strange land but made extremely welcome . Fond memories makes it more poignant .
Aviation is not inherently dangerous , but like the sea must be respected . Those that participate know this , but innocent people relaxing in a pub !
I guess that the professionals in Police and Ambulance aviation are saluting their colleagues ; whilst the Black humour jokes abound and enable that family branch of aviation to get '' back on the bike '' Good luck Otter .

Brgds dave f .

[tonymadge]

Another sad day in Police Aviation, I was on duty when the East mids cab went into trees on return to its base, we flew over trying to locate the missing crew member who it later turned out had perished inside the wreck, hadnt been on the unit long and that memory of their Chief thanking us for our help that night and the drawn tired look on his face will stay with me forever.
Police operations means you fly in sometimes less than ideal conditions, you fly with easements so that means lower in congested areas and can pretty much land where you want as the situation demands.
But the aircraft are maintained meticulously with highly professional and trained crews who always put safety first. We had a crash plan in place at WMP and trained for emergencies regularly in fact these were often done real time whilst flying to check your knowledge of checklists whilst airborne as well as a safety brief at the start of the shift which incorporated a "what if scenario" which always prompted healthy debate. I was involved in only a few emergencies in my years on the crew and the training paid off.
The only real fact known is that the aircraft was on its way back to base so was unlikely to be involved in a task which points to a major failure of the cab, I have had a situation of vortex ring where basically your caught up in your own disturbed air and you drop very quickly, however thats when on a task and not in forward flight.
I see BBC and Sky news roll out the usual twats who proclaim to be experts, Chris Yates over the weekend was speculating madly and annoyed me a lot. Not sure where they get these pricks from. Guess its all about trying to make the news rather than just report on it!
I do believe that that Strathclyde have been unfortunate to have three accidents now, the first was I believe a Jetranger that hit a block of flats way back in the early years of Police Air Support, that brought about the wearing of protective equipment and also a much more stringent way operations were carried out. Then an EC-135T1 was lost on a night flight where the pilot lost ground reference and crashed into the ground, the design of the helicopter and the safety equipment saved the crew from fatal injuries.
My thoughts are with the families and friends of the lost souls and also for all the guys and girls plying their trade trying to keep us safe. Its a thin blue line up there and due to the diligence of all the crew one that rarely has days like this one.