Flags to fly at half-mast on government buildings after at least eight die when helicopter crashes into Glasgow pub
A painstaking operation to recover the remains of at least eight people killed when a police helicopter crash-landed on a busy pub in Glasgow is continuing, with a final death toll yet to emerge.
Police still held out hope that survivors could be found, as rescue workers continued the difficult task of shoring up the shattered roof of the Clutha Vaults bar. The roof collapsed at 10.25pm on Friday night, trapping scores of customers, after the Eurocopter EC135 T2 suffered a catastrophic loss of power and hit the building, which stands on the banks of the river Clyde.
Alex Salmond, Scotland's first minister, ordered flags to fly at half-mast on government buildings to mark "a black day for Glasgow and Scotland" as accident investigators tried to establish what had caused one of the UK's worst urban aviation disasters of recent times.
As dusk fell over the scene, Chief Constable Sir Stephen House disclosed that eight people had been confirmed killed, including the helicopter's civilian pilot and two police officers on board. The five other dead were killed in the bar.
Up to 120 people were thought to have been inside the single-storey bar, one of Glasgow's most famous pub music venues, where a local ska band, Esperanza, had been playing. Specialist search and rescue dogs from Trossachs mountain rescue team were brought in to search for victims and any possible survivors.
Immediately after the crash, 32 people were taken to hospital, many rescued by a human chain of uninjured customers and passersby, including East Renfrewshire Labour MP Jim Murphy.
On Saturday evening it was reported that fourteen people are in a serious or critical condition.
Police saluted the courage of those who had ignored the risk of an explosion or a further collapse of the building to join the rescue effort. House said the fire brigade were working carefully to secure the building and were still treating it as a rescue operation on Saturday evening, with possible survivors still inside.
"This is a complex and ongoing rescue operation. It will not be a quick operation. It's a very complex and indeed dangerous scene," House said. He added: "I commend the courage of people in Glasgow who, heedless of their own safety, took immediate action at the scene."
An inquiry into the cause of the crash has been launched by the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) and the Crown Office prosecution service. Eurocopter said an accident investigation team was on its way to Scotland to help the AAIB and other bodies. Witnesses said the helicopter seemed to "drop like a stone" from the sky, but aviation experts said that the EC135 T2 was a modern aircraft with a good safety record.
There have been significant safety alerts recently, however. Bond Air Services temporarily took the EC135 out of service last year after the Scottish Ambulance Service reported a crack in the main rotor hub; the same defect was found in other EC135s, so Bond introduced daily safety checks before allowing the aircraft to resume service.
As the scale of the disaster emerged, while Scotland had been preparing to celebrate St Andrew's Day, sombre political leaders praised the rescuers and offered condolences to the families of the dead and injured.
Glasgow council cancelled its St Andrew's Day celebrations in George Square while the archbishop of Glasgow, Philip Tartaglia, held a special mass at the city's cathedral. Some football matches were delayed by a minute's silence for the dead and bereaved, although other clubs were criticised for failing to acknowledge the tragedy.
Salmond said: "This is a black day for Glasgow and Scotland, but it's also St Andrew's Day and it's a day we can take pride and courage in how we respond to adversity and tragedy. That response from our emergency services and from ordinary citizens has been exemplary. As first minister, it's a day we can take great pride in how we've responded to this extraordinary tragedy."
David Cameron, the prime minister, extended his "deepest sympathies" and said the UK government would lend any help required. "I want to thank the emergency services who worked tirelessly throughout the night, and I also want to pay tribute to the bravery of the ordinary Glaswegians who rushed to help," he said.
Gordon Mathieson, leader of Glasgow city council, said the Clutha was "an absolute institution" in the city. "My immediate reaction is just one of shock, actually," he said. "You just know it's going to be busy – it always is. We're at the beginning of the festive season, it's pay weekend and there's live music going on … It's just difficult to take it all in."
With the single-storey building cordoned off by a tall steel wall by Police Scotland, and the roof and the aircraft's rear rotor blades shrouded by green and blue tarpaulin sheets, distraught relatives were waiting for official word on whether their loved ones' bodies were in the building or had been recovered.
Edward Waltham, a retired firefighter directly involved in the city's last helicopter crash, when a Bell JetRanger – again used by Strathclyde police – crashed into a three-storey block at Eastwood Toll during a heavy blizzard in January 1990, killing a police sergeant on board, said he pulled out one dust-covered unconscious man with a broken leg.
Waltham said a close friend, Doug Naismith, another former firefighter and uncle of the Everton and Scotland striker Stephen Naismith, was among the injured at the Clutha. Naismith suffered a broken collar bone; Waltham had been late arriving to meet him there.
"It was chaotic, but initially people were in a state of disbelief because there wasn't any screaming or shouting at first," he said, adding: "There was one guy lying there who was completely covered in dust. He was non-communicative and it was at this point that other people were beginning literally to be pulled out on top of us."
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