Helicopter crashes into glasgow pub

[Buddy Bradley]

I dislike the way 'rolling news' covers tragedies in general, all wild speculation and bothering of emergency workers and relatives, there seems so little dignity in any of it.

My recollection is hazy, but apparently the rolling news coverage really only started to get like this from 9/11 onwards. It's like Denis Leary once said, "We watched Lee Harvey Oswald get shot live on TV one Sunday morning, we were afraid to change the fucking channel for the next thirty years."

 

[Dogsauce]

My recollection is hazy, but apparently the rolling news coverage really only started to get like this from 9/11 onwards. It's like Denis Leary once said, "We watched Lee Harvey Oswald get shot live on TV one Sunday morning, we were afraid to change the fucking channel for the next thirty years."

I recall the 9-11 footage being looped on TV for months (with stories of human tragedies played out in our living rooms), and at the same time being told that the radicalisation of Al-Queda terrorists was achieved by showing them repeated footages of atrocities and victims in places like the West Bank and Iraq. Same thing, isn't it?

 

[lizzieloo]

the helicopter has just been removed by crane. it seems fairly intact in some areas, lending weight to the possibility that it briefly landed on the roof in some controlled or semi-controlled manner, rather than just crash like a stone from way up in the sky. that's just my conjecture though.

That wouldn't have killed the 3 people in the helicoptor

 

[2hats]

That wouldn't have killed the 3 people in the helicoptor

Possibly, however the fact that the tail is still intact and connected to the main fuselage would tend to suggest that the descent was not a purely ballistic trajectory from any significant altitude.

 

[where to]

That wouldn't have killed the 3 people in the helicoptor

yep, hadn't thought of that.

 

[Spymaster]

So no more bodies found.

Weren't there two ladies at the crash site this morning expecting a relative to be found?

 

[weepiper]

So no more bodies found.

Weren't there two ladies at the crash site this morning expecting a relative to be found?

9 bodies found, only 6 officially named so far.

 

[Spymaster]

9 bodies found, only 6 officially named so far.

Yeah, so likely to be one of the 3, which suggests the bodies were unidentifiable.

 

[Frances Lengel]

Bad do anyway. Thoughts are with everyone affected.

 

[weepiper]

They've just named the last ones. Two friends-of-friends. Bit close to home this.

 

[weepiper]

 

[Spymaster]

 

[weepiper]

John McGarrigle was one of the people in the pub who were killed. He was a poet.

 

[Spymaster]

Ah.

 

[sojourner]

John McGarrigle was one of the people in the pub who were killed. He was a poet.

First thing I heard on the radio yesterday was that 'the poet John McGarrigle' had died, and wrote this for him. Didn't know him, but was really struck by him and his work, and just wanted to commemorate him in some small way.

http://poetry-24.blogspot.co.uk/

McGarrigle’s Glasgow

One of the scribes was taken tonight.
One of the seers, one of our own.
One of the prophets will write no more lines
in radical rhymes
nor preach them to people like us.

He struggled against his emptying days,
though yearned for contentment and calm.
Thought he had lost that angry young man,
but McGarrigle – words never die;
they’re beyond a stillness of pulse.

You spoke of a Glasgow unknown to the rich,
of the Cross, of a town built on sweat.
In the Clutha, the Scotia, the folk and the verse -
dance of the underdog, lies of the land –
were given a life in tune to your truth.

Tonight in a town made of working-class gold,
in the midst of McGarrigle’s Glasgow -
the artists and players, singers and sculptors,
poets and prophets and pipers and drummers
remember the heat of your heart;
raise their glass to the fire within.

May your flame spark gently in unsurpassed sunset tonight.

 

[equationgirl]

nice one sojourner soulful words x

 

[teuchter]

They've just named the last ones. Two friends-of-friends. Bit close to home this.

Have just found out that the pilot was a friend of a close acquaintance of mine. He flew medical helicopters all round Scotland, as well as the police one. Horrible, this whole thing.

 

[equationgirl]

I laid some flowers on behalf of urbanites today. I know not everyone can get to Glasgow so it felt like the right thing to do.

 

[sojourner]

I laid some flowers on behalf of urbanites today. I know not everyone can get to Glasgow so it felt like the right thing to do.

Thank you

 

[equationgirl]

Thank you

thanks doll you are more than welcome x

I found it overwhelming to be honest, there's a horrible rawness at the site (it's across the road where the pub is/was, right next to the river). But a lovely council worker kindly helped put the flowers under the netting they have sorted out to secure them upright. I think in time there will be a permanent memorial there.

 

[equationgirl]

The first funeral has taken place, that of the pilot, at the University of Glasgow this morning.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-25279442

 

[danny la rouge]

I have discovered quite by chance that John McGarrigle, the poet who died at the Clutha, and I both contributed a short story to the same little-known publication in the early/mid 90s. His is much better than mine (which I don't remember writing, and having re-read it wish I hadn't submitted). I don't remember ever meeting him, but clearly our paths crossed in a number of ways: we frequented the same pubs at the same time, and wrote for the same publications.

That is the shocking thing about this tragedy; the ways in which we feel connected to it. Some of course far more than me, but also all those in Glasgow who have at one time or another been connected to the Clutha by being part of the city's music scene, of the "left" in Glasgow, of the life that coursed between the Scotia and the Clutha. Those who write or wrote or wanted to write; who talked through the night.

I have been remembering nights in the Clutha and the Scotia, discussions and arguments that I can still recall, some in better detail than others. Some going back 20 years and more. Some huddled in corners, some spilling out across the bar. It's hard to think of such a lively old place, a haven, a place full of life, of music, being a place of death and tragedy.

I met a group of old friends the weekend of the tragedy. We could quite easily have met in the Clutha that night. We thought a friend who hadn't turned up might have been there that night. He wasn't, but he might easily have been. Easily.

 

[equationgirl]

No evidence of mechanical fault found by AAIB:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-25306936

This (for the most part) rules out a major gearbox or engine problem. Main and tail rotors were not rotating at the time of the crash.

However this does mean pilot error along with a whole host of minor causes such as fuel supply issues is still being considered as the cause of the accident, according to the article.

 

[equationgirl]

Funerals of Mark O'Prey and Gary Arthur have been held today, in East Kilbride and Paisley respectively.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-25283836

 

[Spymaster]

However this does mean pilot error ....

Where did you get that from?

 

[equationgirl]

Where did you get that from?

Sorry, got distracted - meant to say '...is still being considered'. Have edited.

 

[Spymaster]

Pilot error that causes the rotors to stop spinning.

 

[equationgirl]

Pilot error that causes the rotors to stop spinning.

I personally don't think it's pilot error. But it's always a convenient excuse to have hanging around. Look at that Chinook crash for example.

 

[laptop]

Pilot error that causes the rotors to stop spinning.

"What's that switch do?"

 

[equationgirl]

laptop not really the thread for humour.