The Glasgow helicopter crash has resulted in eight fatalities so far and many people trapped when a police helicopter crashed on an iconic pub in Glasgow in Scotland. The Glasgow helicopter crashed into the roof of a well-known pub in Glasgow in Scotland on Friday at 10:22 p.m. killing eight and trapping a few of the 120 customers on the left-hand side of the building. “A senior fire officer said they had made contact with some people trapped inside the pub but the building was unsafe and they were taking a ‘methodical’ approach to the rescue.” The Police Scotland helicopter involved in the Glasgow helicopter crash was a twin-engine Eurocopter EC135 T2, according to a Nov. 30, 2013, BBC report.
The police helicopter crash occurred during a music performance at The Clutha Pub on the banks of the River Clyde and witnesses say that the police helicopter crashed into the roof of the pub “like a stone.” The police chopper is said to have had two police officers and a civilian pilot on board and all three were killed.
According to an eyewitness who was in the pub at the time of the Glasgow helicopter crash, the impact sounded like “a giant explosion,” and the room was covered in dust.
“We didn’t know what had happened. We froze for a second; there was panic and then people trying to get out the door.”
Another witness described the scene of the Glasgow helicopter crash as a “total bedlam” and said that while some people escaped the chaos, many more did not flee the scene but “rushed to help by creating a human chain to lift the wounded from the pub to safety.”
Another eyewitness to the helicopter crash in Glasgow’s famous pub said that there were multiple injuries and a “pile of people” scrambling out of a pub. “I jumped out and tried to help. There were people with injuries. Bad gashes to the head. Some were unconscious. I don’t know how many. The helicopter was inside the pub. It’s a mess. I could only get a yard or two inside. I helped carry people out.”
The cause of the Glasgow helicopter crash is under investigation. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service has a specialist urban search and rescue crew at the scene. According to assistant chief officer Lewis Ramsay, “our officers are working very hard in what is a very complex and hard environment for them. We are in the process at the moment of making the building stable. It is very unsafe.”
According to BBC’s latest Glasgow helicopter crash report, besides the three helicopter victims, five people were killed in the pub. Fourteen people are being treated for very serious injuries including “chest injuries, head injuries, long-bone fractures and lacerations.”
As of Saturday afternoon, Police Scotland Chief Constable Sir Stephen House said that authorities would remain at the scene of the Glasgow helicopter crash “for many days yet.” He also commented that “this is a complex and ongoing rescue operation. It will not be a quick operation. It is a very complicated and indeed dangerous scene.”
