Helicopter Crash Central London
 

BBC reporting a helicopter hit a crane on top of a building near Vauxhall/Waterloo. Went down in streets. Emergency services blocking off area.

Helicopter Crash in London
 

Sky News have just reported a helicopter crash in the Vauxhall district of London. Lets hope there are no serious injuries or worse. The pictures show flames and black smoke, so it looks like a serious incident with cars involved as well.

BBC News - Helicopter 'crashes into crane' in London

I imagine it will get updated as the story unfolds.

Low(ish) viz in freezing fog reported at London City
METAR: EGLC 160820Z 34003KT 0700 R09/0800 R27/0750 FZFG BKN001 M03/M03 Q1012

Fog has gone, photos on TV show blue sky, buildings in background, smoke and flames.

Sky News reporting one person on board, A109.

Quite foggy even at ground level when I passed through there about 6 this morning. Just heard on the radio the chopped seems to have struck the arm of the tower crane which is on the building site across from MI5. Landed on a 7 seater car which caught fire with people in it according to a witness

Crane is now leaning over by all accounts

One t w i t t e r witness states it hit a crane.

Does not look good, hope they got out.

Twitter feed from somebody on the scene. There are a couple of photos but be warned, it's not pretty and it's only 25 minutes old https://twitter.com/craiglet

Viz looks low on the crane pic but that might be a trick of the image. It's uncomfortably close to MI5 HQ.

Another feed with images: https://twitter.com/bottle_bohemia

It is foggy in south London. It certainly was just before 0800 when this happened. I am looking towards the scene albeit 2 or 3 miles away and the fog has only just cleared the tower cranes between me and the scene.

St George's Wharf Tower and crane (old photo)

http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/...6_aeea2f0c.jpg

This NOTAM?

HIGH RISE JIB CRANE (LIT AT NIGHT) OPR WI 1NM 5129N 00007W, HGT 770FT AMSL (VAUXHALL, CENTRAL LONDON), OPS CTC 12-10-0429/AS 2.

Helicopter Crash Central London
 

Surprised they were flying in it to be honest

Hope all goes well but it does look bad

:(

Helicopter Crash Central London
 

Any idea who the operator is???

Presumably the most likely to be involved would be a legitimate flight, such as air ambulance, police or traffic?
Doesn't look good for those aboard and possibly 3 or more vehicles hit by falling debris/wreckage.
Although it's close to the MI5 building, don't see any reason to big it up into anything more than a tragic accident due to poor visibility.

Another set of photographs of the tower and crane.

Its MI6 not MI5 ! MI5 is on the north side of the river !

And if you've ever driven around that part of the world, you'll find the MI6 building is nestled between some of those ghastly residential new developments and some old buildings on the other side.... so its not exactly exposed.

There was some construction work going on to build yet another ghastly residential development..... so let's stop the MI6 conspiracy theories shall we ! Seems like the thing hit the construction crane, nothing more.

I'm just down the river in Greenwich, have been looking out of the window since before 8am. From my position 15 floors up (150ft?) Viz is and has been well below one mile, and the tops of 4 building cranes which are under 200ft high nearby are in the mist.

It may well be variable elsewhere on the river, but the tops of cranes here are certainly invisible from about 200m away.

:(

Icare9, With battersea helipad around 1/2 a mile from the incident area it could have been any type of traffic. No one is suggesting there is any link with the MI5 building. Merely using it as a reference point for the location of the building to which the crane is erected on

The crane has been there so long it's on Google streetview.... :cool:

Plus the location of the crane is no doubt in a NOTAM... seems like a good point of reference to me !