On 29 November 2013, a police helicopter operated by Bond Air Services for Police Scotland crashed into the Clutha, a pub in central Glasgow, killing all three crew on board and seven patrons of the pub. Thirty-one more people in the pub were injured. The subsequent investigation concluded that the cause of the crash was fuel starvation due to incorrect operation of the fuel system.
Accident
The helicopter took off from its base at Glasgow City Heliport at 20:45 on 29 November 2013. The pilot was 51-year-old David Traill; Traill had flown Chinook helicopters in the RAF for 20 years, latterly as an instructor. He had worked for the police for four years, and had 646 hours of flight experience on the EC135. The helicopter carried two police observers, PCs Kirsty Nelis and Tony Collins. On takeoff it carried of fuel. The flight, callsign SP99, was initially involved in the search for a suspected trespasser on railway lines around Eglinton Toll. It was then tasked to Dalkeith in Midlothian, around east of its base, before returning to the Glasgow area. A few minutes before the crash, the pilot had received air traffic control clearance to return to Glasgow City Heliport. At 22:22, approximately east of its home base, the helicopter came down on the flat roof of the Clutha bar in Stockwell Street. No distress call was made. A ska band, Esperanza, was playing in the pub at the time of the crash and there were reported to be around 120 people in the building, some of whom were trapped by the collapsing roof. The three helicopter occupants and six people on the ground were killed. Thirty-two others were injured, twelve seriously, one of whom died some days later. One witness, Gordon Smart, editor of the Scottish Sun, stated that he did not see a fireball or hear an explosion, and that the engine seemed to be misfiring.
Aircraft
The accident aircraft was a twin-engined Eurocopter EC135 T2+, serial 0546, registered G-SPAO and manufactured in 2007. At the time of the accident it had flown for 6,351 hours and made 9,385 landings. The helicopter's Certificate of Airworthiness was valid until 4 September 2018.
Emergency response
The building is a former tenement which used to have multiple storeys, but after a fire in the 1960s the upper storeys were removed. The walls were therefore much thicker than would be expected for a building of this height, and the complex construction of the roof complicated the search and rescue operation. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service deployed 125 firefighters to the scene rescuing people trapped in the building for hours after the incident. The Scottish Ambulance Service sent upwards of 25 ambulances to the scene along with 2 Special Operations Response Teams that specialise in major and inaccessible incidents. They worked throughout the next two days searching and retrieving people from within the Clutha. Urban search and rescue firefighters were also in attendance to shore up unstable parts of the building and to excavate collapsed areas. People rescued from the scene were initially taken by the emergency services to a nearby Holiday Inn hotel. Labour Party MP Jim Murphy was interviewed as he was passing soon after the crash. 32 people were taken for treatment to local hospitals including Glasgow Royal Infirmary and Glasgow Victoria Infirmary, a dozen with injuries classed as serious. An emergency phone number was set up for anyone concerned about family and relatives who may have been in and around the pub, and Glasgow City Council established a family reception centre to "provide advice and counselling to relatives of people who have been injured or people whose relatives are unaccounted for". One of the seriously injured victims died from his injuries on 12 December.
The AAIB issued a preliminary report of its findings on 9 December. It confirmed that the rotor blades were attached, but neither they nor the fenestron tail rotor were rotating at the time of impact. No evidence of engine or gearbox failure was found and there were around of fuel still on board. The aircraft struck the building with "a high rate of descent and low/negligible forward speed" and no part of it detached in flight. It came to rest approximately upright. On 14 February 2014, the AAIB issued a Special Bulletin on the accident. It stated that the cause of the accident was that both engines had flamed out, but the reasons that they had done so had not yet been determined. The report stated that one of the two tanks supplying the engines was empty and the other contained of fuel. A third tank, known as the main tank, was reported to contain of fuel but the transfer pumps supplying this fuel to the two engine fuel tanks were found with their switches in the "off" position.
Final report
The final accident report was published in October 2015. It found the main cause of the accident to be fuel starvation due to the fuel transfer pumps being switched off "for unknown reasons." This resulted in the engines flaming out despite there being of usable fuel remaining in the main tank. A failure to land within ten minutes of the first low-fuel warning, as prescribed by emergency checklists, and a failure to achieve a successful autorotation after both engines failed were cited as additional causal factors. The AAIB also identified as contributory factor that the radar altimeter and the steerable landing light were both unpowered following the engine flame-out, leading to a loss of height information and reduced visual cues during the autorotation manoeuvre. Seven safety recommendations were made.
Fatal accident inquiry
In 2017 the Crown Office announced that a fatal accident inquiry would be held into the crash. The Crown Office also confirmed that no criminal charges would be laid following an investigation by Police Scotland. Preliminary hearings were held on 3 October and 4 December 2018, then on 11 January, 5 February and 3 April 2019. The inquiry began on 8 April 2019 in a temporary court at Hampden Park football ground, and concluded on 5 August. The inquiry was mandatory in respect of the crew of the helicopter, and discretionary in respect of the customers of the Clutha Vaults. The inquiry sat for 31 days between 8 April and 18 July. Sheriff Principal Craig Turnbull provided a written determination which was published on 30 October 2019. No recommendations were made.
Civil proceedings against Bond Aviation Group were begun by victims' lawyers Irwin Mitchell in January 2014, when they sent a letter of claim to the company's legal representatives. Irwin Mitchell partner Elaine Russell alleged the company had "strict liability... for material loss or damage... to any person or property on land or water", under Section 76 of the Civil Aviation Act 1982.
Civil aviation
As a direct result of the accident and recommendations made by the AAIB, the Civil Aviation Authority mandated that all police helicopters would be fitted with Cockpit Voice Recorders and Flight Data Recorders. Implementation to be completed by 31 March 2020.
