Scoobydroo: thanks for taking the time to inform us of this unique piece of witness evidence: I hope your son isn't too traumatised.
am a frequent visitor to the site, but infrequent poster. My youngest son wants to be a pilot and is mid-application to join the navy to train as a helicopter pilot and I usually read the wannabe section and military threads. I spotted this thread and have read it with considerable interest as my middle son is the editor of the Scottish Sun who witnessed the fall of the helicopter on Friday night from the top floor of the multistorey car park, about 250metres West from the crash site. Despite his journalistic background and being a hardened hack, he has been severely traumatised by what he saw. Gordon's reports have been well published on all of the TV channels and newspapers but I think it is fair to say that he believes that the helicopter was out of control. He was on the phone to a colleague in London and was about to get his the car to drive home when he became aware of a loud noise above him - when Gordon is on the phone, like many young people, it is difficult to distract him so the noise must have been considerable. He describes the night as being crystal clear and was aware of the helicopter starting its fall. He initially thought the helicopter was falling towards him and dived behind the car but continued to watch the helicopter fall. He describes the helicopter tumbling - not sure if this is what you are describing as autorotating - but he does not think that this was controlled. The helicopter, as we know, did not hit the car park but landed 250m away on the other side of a block of flats and the Holiday Inn Express and he did not see the impact. He was able to see the police signs on the helicopter as it came down and stated that he was 80% certain that it was the police helicopter that had been involved long before it was officially announced. He is also clear that the helicopter was eerily quiet, that the rotors did not seem to be rotating and was amazed that there was no explosion. He struggled to get his car out of the car park and by the time he got to the site on foot, which is not far away, the emergency services were already arriving and blocking off the scene. He ran round the corner into Argyll Street to get back to his office in Queen Street. He spoke to a policeman in Argyll Street who was totally unaware of the helicopter coming down and initially did not believe him until he called into control.
I appreciate that Gordon is no expert but he is clear that the helicopter could not have landed gently on the roof of the pub, or that the pilot was trying to find a safe landing place. He has been interviewed by the authorities and told that in due course will be required to give evidence at any subsequent Fatal Accident Inquiry.
I hope that this helps and that the reason for the crash is ascertained sooner rather than later.
In concert with another witness statement about the flight path of said a/c and also the footage of the crash scene, we can be as certain as one can in these circumstances that the a/c was near stationary when the descent was initiated. I woul also postulate that because Post 534 indicates the blades were stationary, that something very very quick and very devastating took place seconds earlier.
I would suggest that by the time Post 534 saw the incident - the pilot was a already a passenger and no longer in control of the helo.
Ag B has a valid point which I think shouldn't be ignored in that a multiple bird strike may have possibly been a cause (although he did go onto say that the a/c may have been in transit and I don't agree with this).
I am going to use post 534 as the basis for the following revised
theories:
(No particular order): These are obviously
alleged scenarios.
Catastrophic failure of the MGB. Rotor decay, pilot accepts the hopelessness of the situation and does what he can to minimise damage on impact by switching engines and fuel off.
(The other side of the argument would suggest that any hint of mechanical problems would ground the fleet - which didn't happen).
A pilot suffers a severe and serious incapacitation (TIA for eg). Passing in and out of consciousness, they attempt to descend to land, roll the throttles off to FI and inadvertently raise the collective thinking they are close to the ground, when in fact they are still hundreds of feet up in the air.
Sabotage.
1 x other.
I simply cannot think of any other scenarios. (That's probably why I never worked for ther AAIB
).