Sasless:
Well now Sarboy....lay out your case for why there might have been a Rule broken.
Do be specific and lay out your evidence....not your opinion please.
I'm genuinely not trying to be antagonistic Sasless, as I generally agree with the majority of what you post, but you are not allowed to fly through restricted areas unless you comply with the restrictions that are laid down for that restricted area.
http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/7/EIS%2006.pdf
Quoting from this doc:
Restricted Areas
There are a number of Restricted Areas that lie within both the London and London City CTR’s; the boundaries of which are clearly displayed on the London Helicopter chart overleaf. A restricted area is an area of defined dimensions within which the flight of aircraft is restricted in accordance with certain specified conditions. The following offers a brief summary of the Restricted Areas and the conditions attached to them:
EG R157 (Hyde Park), EG R158 (City of London) and EG R159 (Isle of Dogs) are all established from surface level up to 1,400 feet. Flights are permitted within each of these restricted areas providing they are in the service of the Chief of Police for the Metropolitan Police District, are flying in accordance with a Special Flight Notification (SFN) issued by the appropriate ATC unit, are flying along Helicopter Route H4, or are flying in accordance with an Enhanced Non-Standard Flight (ENSF) clearance issued by the appropriate ATC unit.
SFN’s can be applied to a variety of special aerial tasks, which may take place throughout an extended period of time. The most common are Police Authority Air Support Unit (ASU) and Air Operations Unit (AOU) flights, Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) flights and HM Government-sponsored flights (including Ministry of Defence and other flights). The nature of SFN flights is such that they will often require to be afforded priority over most other flights.
ENSF’s are subject to security considerations by the Metropolitan Police and may be refused on public interest grounds. There are a number of helicopter operators that have an annual ENSF clearance due to the numerous tasks that they are required to undertake within the restricted areas, for example, those operators responsible for conducting aerial filming on behalf of the major TV News channels. On any occasion that such operators wish to manoeuvre within any of the restricted areas, they are required to obtain a permission number from the Diplomatic Protection Group (DPG), which validates their flight within it.
I can't see why the aircraft took the route that it did between Lambeth Bridge until it turned eastbound at Chelsea Bridge. This took it well and truly inside R157. It needed, at the altitudes it was flying (considerably < 1400'), to fly along the line of the Thames.
The elephant in the room is why this wasn't done? In my opinion, the texting issue is irrelevant - at the time these texts took place, the aircraft was VMC on top of cloud, a long way from the scene of the accident and almost certainly with the flight director plugged in.
The last 3 paras from post 504/Jim Ball are relevant. I suggest, supported by the pictures immediately after the incident and from personally seeing the cloudbase on the south side of the river near to the accident scene shortly before the crash, that there was an area of low cloud/fog on that bend by Vauxhall Bridge. One possible reason for the height loss (~200' in a very short space of time) immediately north of New Covent Garden is that the aircraft was attempting to remain clear of the cloudbase there, and the subsequent climb was an attempt to abide by the 500' rule. This put the aircraft too close to the cloudbase to achieve sufficient visibility in the direction of the crane/building for it to be seen in time and avoided.