News Helicopter crashes in London

[garyw]

This morning we've got very heavy fog and I suspect this crash would be up near Battersea heliport, probably on the approach which does come very close to several high rise buildings. With that tall building, a crane on top and dense fog it's pretty much a disaster waiting to happen.

The emergency services are responding to reports of a helicopter crash in south London.
The London Fire Brigade said it had received multiple calls of a helicopter hitting a crane in Vauxhall.
Ex-BBC producer Paul Ferguson said the helicopter "plummeted straight into the ground". People have reported seeing a pall of smoke in the area.
Police said they first received calls at 08:00 GMT and the London Ambulance Service said it was also at the scene.
Transport for London has confirmed there has been an incident.
Mr Ferguson added: "The building the helicopter hit is shrouded in mist."
He said the crane at the top of the building was now hanging down the side of the building.
Witnesses reported seeing debris on the ground.
The BBC's Ross Hawkins said at least four ambulances and many police cars were at the scene.
He said Wandsworth Road near Vauxhall station is closed, with apparent debris on the ground, and a crane at the top of a new high rise development appears to be damaged.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21040410

This story is still developing, expect updates.

Vauxhall station is closed and there is burning debris along the road.

 

[Urwumpe]

Some days ago, a helicopter crashed on a German Autobahn A6, after colliding with power lines. It was really great luck that the only loss was the helicopter pilot, who died in the burning helicopter. A truck driver was slightly injured by debris of the helicopter, but despite the traffic volume at this place, no other vehicles had been involved in the crash - only 20 km traffic jam in both directions until the debris was cleared, the accident happened shortly after a ramp, so redirecting the traffic was possible.

 

[garyw]

More photos.

The crane the helicopter hit, you can just make out where the top has been sheared off and you can see the remaining fog.

Helicopters are meant to follow the curve of the Thames when coming into the heliport.

Update from MET Police:

Two people confirmed dead at scene. Two have been taken to south London hospital - condition awaits. #LondonHelicopter #Vauxhall #Helicopter

 

[Notebook]

Just listening to the radio news motor-mouth at the moment. Ignorance has no bounds. Seems surprised that helicopters operate in London.

Helicopters have a good safety record in London, they are only allowed to fly up the Thames. There are two entry points into The Specified Area as its called, one at Kew Bridge, one at Barnes. Only multi-engine helicopter are allowed to deviate from the Thames.

I'm guessing the pilot lost VFR and was off-track, maybe this was a new crane erection, and hadn't updated?

I declare an interest in this, I did a PPL(H) in the mid 80's when I was young and daft,(and had some money!).

Never flew around London, but I still have the charts.

Awful tragedy for those involved, but in perspective, we have about 1900 deaths per year on our roads.

N.

 

[garyw]

I'm guessing the pilot lost VFR and was off-track, maybe this was a new crane erection, and hadn't updated?

The AAIB report will be interesting but I'll agree with that. From altitude following the thames is quite a trick and with the very thick fog even lights on the crane wouldn't have been visible for very far.

 

[Urwumpe]

The AAIB report will be interesting but I'll agree with that. From altitude following the thames is quite a trick and with the very thick fog even lights on the crane wouldn't have been visible for very far.

Looking at the maps, it seems that either the pilot thought to be at the wrong curve of the Thames, or he was flying straight towards the London Heliport - the line from heliport to the St George Wharf building that was initially hit continues well on the Thames.

 

[garyw]

I think he was flying straight towards the heliport and almost certainly in thick fog at the time of the accident. I'd say that the fog here was 50m vis and all the way down to the ground. Of course, this speculation from me based upon my knowledge of the area.

 

[Urwumpe]

I think he was flying straight towards the heliport and almost certainly in thick fog at the time of the accident. I'd say that the fog here was 50m vis and all the way down to the ground. Of course, this speculation from me based upon my knowledge of the area.

Looking at the photos, there was still a lot of fog left above the buildings, so I can imagine that the visibility at the time of the crash must have been extremely bad.

One reason more for a pilot to be extremely careful or even stay at home if you can. He must have lifted off in such fog already, since helicopters don't really have a long endurance.

 

[Spacethingy]

Miracle there were no fatalities on the ground at that time of day. Poor people seeing that, must have been flung back to 7/7 again.

 

[garyw]

At least one person was pulled from a burning car.

Interestingly there was some speculation that it was the Police helicopter that went down but that was grounded due to the fog. If this helicopter was heading towards battersea heliport it would have had a nightmare landing anyway. To the left of the heliport (in that photo) is a hotel. To the right residential places and offices. It's a very crowded place to operate.

 

[garyw]

Metropolitan Police ‏@metpoliceuk

We are aware of 11 casualties: 2 people confirmed dead, 4 taken to hospital (1 critical), 5 treated at scene #LondonHelicopter #Vauxhall

The crane driver was five minutes late for work. If he had been ontime there would have been one more fatality.

Things have quietened down, the fire service are expected to stay on scene for the next 24 hours dampening things down and Police cordorns will remain probably until the AAIB complete their visit.

From here on in it's just a waiting game until the report comes out which could be a year or more.

London heliport is closed for the rest of the day, to me, this confirms that the heliport was the pilots destination.

 

[Artlav]

Only multi-engine helicopter are allowed to deviate from the Thames.

That sounds strange. What kind of advantage multi-engine ones would have? No tail rotor to strike?

 

[garyw]

They stay in the air when an engine fails.

The same rule applies to aircraft for the same reason.

 

[tl8]

That sounds strange. What kind of advantage multi-engine ones would have? No tail rotor to strike?

Most multi-engine copter still have tail rotors.

It would be the ability to climb and move out of the populated area after an engine failure.

 

[Urwumpe]

That sounds strange. What kind of advantage multi-engine ones would have? No tail rotor to strike?

A single engine helicopter would have to land via autorotation instantly. A multi-engine helicopter can (if not carrying heavy payload) keep on flying or at least have more control over the descent to avoid suddenly appearing obstacles. (They usually have two engines for a reason)

In autorotation, you need to descent. You can fly level for a short moment by using the inertia of the rotor (but a rotor is rather light), but generally, you need to descent for producing enough lift to land.

Also a tail rotor strike is less likely than a plain loss of rotor. Even a small dent in the rotor by cutting a cable is usually enough to cause enough vibrations to completely destroy the rotor head. The oscillation dampers there have only limited range.

 

[Artlav]

Then what does the term "multi-engine helicopter" mean?
I thought it was something like V22:

In which case a rotor strike still causes the copter to spin out of control and crash - each rotor is not thrusting through the COG.

If it is something like KA-50

Then the strike would destroy both rotors at once - again, tumble down out of control.

 

[garyw]

Mutli-engine is more where the helicopter has two engines that can both drive the rotors

The Dauphin for example:

You can see the two engine inlets top left and right just below the rotors.

Tailstrikes will bring a helicopter down and thats why they are supposed to follow a very specific corridor down the middle of the Thames, 500ft above the MSA until cleared to land. This is for both noise abatement and terrain/building clearance.

 

[Urwumpe]

Then what does the term "multi-engine helicopter" mean?

It means multiple engines - not automatically multiple rotors. Rotor and engine are different entities in a helicopter, the rotor provides lift and thrust, the engine provides power.

Most bigger helicopters have two engines, the CH-53E has even three engines - but still only one rotor.

 

[Evil_Onyx]

According to aviation-safety.net the Helicopter involved was a [ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AgustaWestland_AW109"]AgustaWestland AW109 E[/ame] Which was operated by Castle Air reg G-CRST, Departure airport: Redhill Aerodrome (EGKR) Destination airport: London Elstree Aerodrome (EGTR)

The AW109E is a multi engine aircraft.

The aircraft involved

 

[Urwumpe]

According to aviation-safety.net the Helicopter involved was a AgustaWestland AW109 E Which was operated by Castle Air reg G-CRST, Departure airport: Redhill Aerodrome (EGKR) Destination airport: London Elstree Aerodrome (EGTR)

Strange... by this data, he should have been flying a northnorthwestern course for getting from Redhill to Elstree. Also he should have been far away from Vauxhall when flying straight and further away, if he was supposed to fly past any flight-restriction zones.

Well, the accuracy of VFR paperwork is always a bit low, but some minimum standards should apply there.

EDIT: Altitude maximum of the H4 helicopter route, that passes near the accident site, is 1400 ft. The building + crane was only 181 meters or ~600 ft. Helicopter pilot requested divertion to London Heliport (Battersea). Minimum distance to any obstacle is 500 ft.

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/7/EIS 06.pdf

http://www.caa.co.uk/docs/7/20100316LondonHeliChart.pdf

Single engined helicopters are already restricted to H4, but multi-engine helicopters can leave the routes when ATC allows.

It gets the strong taste of human error. The question is just who did the error, pilot or air traffic control or both.