Sky reporting that NATS state that the aircraft had been receiving a service earlier, but was not receiving a service at the time of the accident.

Whatever rules he was trying to fly to, he was indisputably in IMC. Probably the one indisputable fact we have right now.

Highly likely he was flying with a GPS. GPS glitches and deliberate jamming/corruption is well known and documented. But that is just conjecture.

Pictures of the helicopter involved from the Castle Air site:
http://www.castleair.co.uk/1997-agus...er-g-crst.html

Statements like these are really conjecture at the moment, and highly likely to be deliberately interpreted by the media to improve their sales, creating the usual scare stories.

Lets have the Experts find out what happened first, before authorities start re-writing the rules which have served us well for so long.

Knee jerk reactions are to be avoided (i hope) until the report, and its findings, are published.

Worker at the towers saying that crane driver was late this morning for the first time in years. Picked the right day to be late!

Don't expect to get on there any time soon... Alternative pics:

Photo Search Results | Airliners.net

I don't think it's wise to post information about an aircraft as the authorities haven't confirmed names of the casualties.

Re-writing what rules ? I thought helis had to be VFR over London ?

But then I'm not a heli pilot, so if one cares to correct me, I'll bow to their wisdom !

Good set of photos from the Telegraph:

Helicopter crash in pictures: aircraft hits crane in Vauxhall, south London - Telegraph

Check out the name of this forum and remember that it's full of pilots who are perfectly capable of expertly conjecturing.

Unlike the "aviation expert" just on Radio 5 who seems to think that an appropriately configured a/c should be OK in those conditions, and after all the police helicopter can fly in any conditions, so maybe the pilot was just caught out. THAT is silly conjecture, and not very expert to boot.

According to BBC News 24 the RNLI have stopped searching.

I would give the pilot the benefit of the doubt. He's unlikely to been in IMC, you have to assume he stayed below the cloud base to the extent you can and of course horizontal visibility was probably not ideal.

He was probably perfectly aware of the building in his path and the crane. But perhaps the jib wasn't visible until it was too late and he just clipped it.

No doubt all will be clear when the radar track is examined and possibly the onboard GPS data if it survived.

It's far too soon to be condemming the pilot or suggesting he was scud running.

My own speculative version is that he was transitting normally albeit in less than ideal conditions, was lower than ideal but clear of the buildings. The jib was mostly in cloud and he either forgot about it or was closer than he believed. I'd say the investigation will reveal he hit the very tip of the jib.

Pictures 14 & 16 show the visibility quite clearly to be low

There is also a picture of what appears to be the wreckage. Very sad indeed

Press conference reports flight was from Redhill to Elstree and had one pilot on board and no passengers.

Yes they do - But this also depends on the time the photo's were taken, compared to the visibility at the time of the accident.

Helicopter could have been flying VFR.

Rules for helicopters operating below 3000ft allow VFR flight so long as they stay clear of cloud and have the surface in sight

Good point. Although I'd say pic 14 wouldn't have been too long afterward it clearly shows the jib has been hit. I only speculate this as a friend was driving over lambeth bridge and sent me a photo around 9:15 and it was still quite hazy. picture 16 could have been anytime though i will concede

VFR = clear of cloud and in sight of the surface? Box ticked then?

Do commercial helicopters carry cvr and black box recorders?