Fit all police helicopters with black boxes in future, Clutha Vaults air accident report concludes
Police helicopters should be fitted with black box flight recording equipment in future, an official report into a crash which claimed ten lives including two police officers recommends.
Police helicopters should be fitted with black box flight recording equipment in future, an official report into a crash which claimed ten lives including two police officers recommends.
The Crown Office in Scotland has confirmed it will now launch a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) into the 2013 tragedy in Glasgow city centre but many questions remained unanswered following the publication of the Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB) report.
The highly-experienced Police Scotland civilian pilot of the helicopter that ran out of fuel, crashing into a busy pub in Glasgow city centre, failed to follow emergency landing protocol despite five audible low-fuel warnings.
The findings on the Clutha Vaults bar disaster that saw pilot David Traill, killed alongside crewmates PC Tony Collins and PC Kirsty Nelis has made seven safety recommendations but doubts persist over its cause.
The accident also claimed the lives of bar customers John McGarrigle, Mark OPrey, Gary Arthur, Colin Gibson, Robert Jenkins, Samuel McGhee and Joe Cusker. Another 31 were injured.
The report attributed no blame to any individual for the crash, with investigators referring to the limited evidence available and questioning why no Mayday call was received from the pilot.
It also detailed how the helicopter continued with routine surveillance and search tasks despite the clear low fuel warnings sounding in the cockpit. All three crew members on board the Police Scotland Eurocopter EC135 would have been aware of the cockpit fuel alerts.
The report said fuel transfer pumps were turned off for the latter part of the flight and a controlled landing was not achieved for “unknown reasons”.
Crash investigators could not explain why the former RAF and instructor pilot, who served in both Gulf wars, appeared to fly for at least 16 minutes despite the cockpit alert signalling he had 10 minutes to end his mission.
There was no explanation why Mr Traill appears to have failed to switch the fuel supply from the helicopters main tank to two smaller tanks that fed its two engines, causing both to fail before it plunged through the roof of the packed Clutha Vaults bar.
The report said: The investigation could not establish why a pilot with over 5,500 hours flying experience in military and civil helicopters, who had been a qualified helicopter instructor and an instrument rating examiner, with previous assessments as an above average pilot, did not complete the actions detailed in the pilots checklist emergency and malfunction procedures for the low fuel 1 and low fuel 2 warnings.
Certainly there was no doubting the Falkirk pilots pedigree.
At his funeral, Church of Scotland minister, the Rev Stuart MacQuarrie, told mourners: I`m absolutely certain that David would have done absolutely everything he could to safeguard his colleagues in the aircraft and people who were on the ground.
“I`m convinced that David`s skills and experience indeed minimised the loss of life on the ground.”
After a wait of almost two years for answers, relatives say the 176 page AAIB report has left them with more questions than answers.
The families of those killed in the crash blame the “lack of a black box” recorder in the police helicopter for “hampering the investigation” and as a result raised further questions. They have also called for all aircraft to be fitted with recording devices.
John McGarrigle, who lost his father John, said: Flight data recorders should be installed in every passenger-carrying aircraft simple as.
If we had that, we would know a lot more. Its just question upon question upon question.
Scotlands first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who had previously intervened twice to hasten publication of the findings, said she shared the families disappointment at the inconclusive report.
She said: It is deeply disappointing that after two years of investigation the report does not reach a clearer conclusion.
I therefore share the disappointment of the families that it does not provide t