OK I know absolutely nothing about helicopters. Are they allowed to fly in this stuff? I know they can do IFR, but 200m?

"Presumably the most likely to be involved would be a legitimate flight, such as air ambulance, police or traffic?"

The Met Police and air ambulance Twitter feeds have already said they aren't involved except professionally.

The aircraft appears to have been dark blue. The crane isn't that far south of the river, at 51.484869,-0.128156 while the crash site is 51.482574,-0.127299 so the post-impact descent would have been almost due south, about 250m away. The wreckage path seems to lie on a N-S axis along the road with the bulk of the wreckage ending up near the railway bridge. Some wreckage is on the buildings on the south side of Wandsworth Road, so it evidently hit them as well before falling into the road outside.

This shows the aftermath at ground zero pretty well, can't see any wreckage though
Helicopter crash at Wandsworth Road, Vauxhall - YouTube

Ground level

I've only been there once, as pax, and it wasn't IMC, but from memory London Specials like you to be at 800ft, over the river i.e. on the Heli Route.

It is very controlled airspace.

Flight rules
 

From the London Heliport flight procedures, "Special helicopter procedures within the London CTR - refer to the UK AIP AD 2.22 (EGLL) for details."

Bizarrely, Google only finds a copy on a Russian web site,
http://va-transaero.ru/files/charts/EGLL.pdf

Story live on UK satellite Sky TY channel 503

Don't 32 Sqdn Fly A109?

"from memory London Specials like you to be at 800ft, over the river i.e. on the Heli Route."

The crane is reportedly 770ft and is only about 50m south of the river just where it bends from north-south to east-west. If, to conjecture, you're approaching from the north along the river and miss the bend in the fog you haven't got a lot of room left even at 800ft.

Have just spoken to a friend. He said the cranes jib(long arm) is visibly hanging beside the shaft of the tower. Reports also suggesting 2 fatalities

Police have confirmed 2 dead. :sad:

BBC quoting police statement that 2 persons killed in this crash.

32 Sqn operate 2 A109E of the 3 initially delivered in 2006.

Pic of crane https://mobile.twitter.com/stanchers...4249856/photos

From the pictures, the flames on the ground are in Wandsworth Road, about 200m due south of the crane. So this does sound plausible.

Yes, the jib of the crane (previously rising at about 45 degrees) was hit and now hangs vertically down with part of it missing. Very precarious.

The helicopter appears to have be travelling south at some rate and after hitting the crane, which is right on the south bank of the Thames, continued southwards losing altitude over Nine Elms Lane (where some debris from the crane fell to the ground), whilst losing height narrowly missing Market Towers, finally hitting the ground immediately outside Wendle Court on the Wandsworth Road, falling just short of the railway bridge carrying all Waterloo mainline trains.

Sky News aviation expert (clue) stated all Heli's in London are under Radar control. I thought Heli flying in the CTR via the approved routes was VFR with base and vis limits. can anyone confirm?

If under radar control, perhaps the radar controllers cannot see that low or paint the crane on their displays with the returns. Very sad.

Do 109 pilots have a IR as part of the type rating? Understand not many helicopter pilots have IR's, other than North Sea as training is expensive etc.

You can fly a 109 without an IR as long as you only fly VFR. From the reports it looks like this aircraft was not flying IFR or VFR. Well not VFR within the regulations anyway.

Helicopters on standard routes are NOT usually under radar control such that navigation is being conducted from the ground. Occasionally separation may be applied by radar but if it was just one helicopter involved ATC would simply monitor the situation.

CAA Rules for the use of the Helicopter in central London
 

CAA Rules

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/7/EIS%2006.pdf

indeed.. and 1mb off on the atlimeter setting and there's no room left.