Candles to be lit at Glasgow Cathedral as police continue to search wreckage of Clutha Vaults pub where at least eight died
Victims of the Glasgow helicopter crash are to be remembered at a service in the city's cathedral on Sunday as the rescue and recovery operation continues.
Special prayers are to be said and candles will be lit at Glasgow Cathedral, where the Scottish justice secretary, Kenny MacAskill, and deputy first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, will be among those attending.
Emergency services are still working to recover bodies from the Clutha Vaults pub in Stockwell Street close to the city centre.
At least eight people – including the civilian pilot and two police officers – were killed when the police helicopter crashed into the building on Friday evening. Another 14 people are in hospital with serious injuries.
Police Scotland have so far named only one of the victims: Gary Arthur, 48, from the Paisley area. His daughter, Celtic and Scottish women's footballer Chloe Arthur, 18, wrote on Twitter: "RIP dad. you'll always mean the world to me, I promise to do you proud, I love you with all my heart.
"Thanks to everyone who has tweeted me, text me etc, means so much, I have the most amazing friends ever."
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 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. Police on Saturday night named one of the victims as Gary Arthur, 48, from Paisley. His family have been informed. A police spokesman said: "Extensive efforts continue to recover the remaining bodies from the scene but due to ongoing safety constraints this is likely to take some time."
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 the 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. A minute's silence for the dead and bereaved was held at Rangers Football Club's Ibrox stadium.
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."
Nenhum comentário:
Postar um comentário