Aviation expert David Learmount said the aircraft was a "very sophisticated" twin-engine helicopter which could have flown with one working engine.
"If the pilot had had any control at all he would've aimed it away from a building," he said.
"The fact that he was not able to aim it away from the building tells us a great deal."
He said even if both engines had failed, the helicopter would have been able to glide, using a method called "auto-rotation".
"This helicopter was unable to do that because it came down much faster than it would've done had the pilot been able to glide it," he said,
"So something happened. Something happened very suddenly and then the pilot either had no control at all or had very little control."
BBC News - Glasgow helicopter crash: What do we know about the aircraft?