Helicoptor Crash at Vauxhal.

[the-e-dealer]

Your journeys may be slow today.

[woodrot]

fucking hell, it look bad

[steveo]

What price one of those high rise flats today?

[woodrot]

shitty shitty situation - you dont expect to have to deal with this kind of horror on your way to work

[nimby]

Yes they should delay all Helicopter flights until 9.30!

[Sue]

Heard Chris Shaw interviewed on the BBC News Channel earlier, sounded like the Chris Shaw who is the melodeon player in Gig CB, he used to live on Peckham Rye, don't know if he still does.

He was stopped at red lights, if lights hadn't been red he'd have been under the crash :(

Very lucky escape (as had the crane driver who was late for work this morning).

One man was rescued from a burning car.

Amazing there weren't more casualties.

Met giving press conference (I think), anyway a statement, at 11.30am according to BBC.

Terrible for all involved but especially the families of the dead :(

ETA: Pilot killed, no passengers on board, one person on the ground killed, one person critically ill.

[Ridgley]

Very sad to hear this.

[red devil]

I know the area very well, extremely lucky there isn't a higher number of fatalities...

[the-e-dealer]

There was no passenger.

[Sue]

the-e-dealer Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> There was no passenger.

xxxxx

Yeh, that's what I said above. "No passengers on board". Very fortunate.

I know the area very well too, often drive through and also use bus station/tube station. Absolutely amazed more people weren't hurt, especially at that time of day.

But very unfortunate for the pilot. Apparently he had been diverted, so possibly wasn't familiar with the area. It seems that a mist/fog had recently come down, as apparently the view had been clear earlier.

But according to early reports I heard, a specific warning had been given to air traffic about this particular crane. Don't know if that's true, as I don't know why it would have been singled out. But in any case it should have had lights on, don't know if they were not visible to the pilot in the mist.

[Marmora Man]

An aircraft flying into a high object is, if the object was identified on relevant air maps, pilot error in the same way that a ship running aground on a charted hazard is a navigational error.

Helos are more flexible about flight planning in general than fixed wing aircraft but it remains the pilot's responsibility to check for various warnings and chart updates relevant to the flight area before taking off.

[DJKillaQueen]

The BBC said the pilot had asked to be diverted because of bad weather, so I'm guessing visibility was poor and visibility can change very quickly as we all know.

Very sad. My thoughts go to the families of those who died x

[Otta]

Marmora Man Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> An aircraft flying into a high object is, if the

> object was identified on relevant air maps, pilot

> error in the same way that a ship running aground

> on a charted hazard is a navigational error.

>

> Helos are more flexible about flight planning in

> general than fixed wing aircraft but it remains

> the pilot's responsibility to check for various

> warnings and chart updates relevant to the flight

> area before taking off.

Yeah, silly fool, serves him right eh.

Bloody Hell MM, I know as fact your a decent sort of a chap, but sometimes your posts come over pretty cold.

[the-e-dealer]

I believe he was trying to get down as it was foggy.

[DJKillaQueen]

Also the helipad is just the other side of that building. Reports say the Helicopter clipped the end of the arm of the crane. Seems to be a trajic accident caused by fog.

[fl0wer]

marmora man wrote

An aircraft flying into a high object is, if the

> object was identified on relevant air maps, pilot

> error in the same way that a ship running aground

> on a charted hazard is a navigational error.

>

> Helos are more flexible about flight planning in

> general than fixed wing aircraft but it remains

> the pilot's responsibility to check for various

> warnings and chart updates relevant to the flight

> area before taking off.

MM echoed more or less what they were telling us on the BBC News channel. An aviation expert said yes,1 duty of pilots = read the regular bulletins updating all the time, re hazards, [much as a vessel's captain is expected to listen to the Shipping Forecast]

so it looks as if the crash may have happened because he asked to be diverted about where he'd land, being surrounded by fog, and therefore had no opportunity for reading about the hazardous crane.

Time will tell, sure there's going to be an in-depth investigation.

Sympathies to all involved, including families who have lost loved ones. Also those many bystanding people who will be in shock.

A terrifying morning.

[Marmora Man]

Otta Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Marmora Man Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > An aircraft flying into a high object is, if

> the

> > object was identified on relevant air maps,

> pilot

> > error in the same way that a ship running

> aground

> > on a charted hazard is a navigational error.

> >

> > Helos are more flexible about flight planning

> in

> > general than fixed wing aircraft but it remains

> > the pilot's responsibility to check for various

> > warnings and chart updates relevant to the

> flight

> > area before taking off.

>

>

> Yeah, silly fool, serves him right eh.

>

> Bloody Hell MM, I know as fact your a decent sort

> of a chap, but sometimes your posts come over

> pretty cold.

I was trying to provide some rational and objective information about helo flying. By background I'm a ship's navigator and have spent a lot of time with helo pilots too; I assure you that aviation specialists would be equally blunt - or even more so.

[Sue]

According to this, he was a very experienced pilot:

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/01/16/vauxhall-helicopter-crash-pilot-named-pete-barnes_n_2486918.html?icid=maing-grid7|uk|dl1|sec1_lnk3%26pLid%3D146323

[minder]

Whether he was an experienced pilot or not, I'm thinking of his poor family right now. Also what thoughts were going through his mind as he realised what was happening? We will never know.

Boris Johnson praising the emergency services is good but he's just made plans for closing 12 fire stations hasn't he?

This terrible accident might be a wake-up call for the need for emergency services in London.

[LondonMix]

Minder what kind of argument is that? We need to keep open extra fire stations in case more helicopters crash into cranes. Either we need the extra stations to be reasonably safe or we don't need them. No one single incident changes anything.

[minder]

There's no argument. Who's talking about extra fire stations? Didn't know there were any.

I'm sure I read that Westminster Fire Station will be one of the first going in the cutbacks.

What if there was an emergency there?

[DJKillaQueen]

London is more than capable of coping with rare tragic incidents like this. To try and turn it into a rallying cry to the public to fight public sector cuts is shameful Minder.

[minder]

I was doing nothing of the sort DJ - you must have misread my post.

[Marmora Man]

minder Wrote:

> This terrible accident might be a wake-up call for the need for emergency services in London.

There are emergency services in London and they dealt with this incident very effectively. I don't see any merit in your argument

[Otta]

I think the point is that Minder would agree with you. The existing emergency services dealt with it very well.