The investigation into the crash of a police helicopter through the roof of a packed Glasgow pub on Friday night continues as emergency workers sift through the rubble in search of more bodies. At least nine people died and 30 were hospitalized when the Eurocopter EC135T2 went down at about 10:30 p.m. local time straight through the roof of the building, which reportedly had about 120 people inside.
The helicopter was removed from the crash site by crane over the weekend and taken to the U.K. Air Accidents Investigation Branch headquarters in Farnborough in the south of England. Eurocopter has sent two of its experts to assist investigators while Bond Air Services, which operated the helicopter on behalf of the Scottish police, is also assisting in the investigation.
The helicopter reportedly took off from a heliport 2 miles from the crash site and was enroute to look for a trespasser on railroad tracks about a mile away.
So far officials have confirmed only that the pilot and two police officers aboard the helicopter were killed in the crash and that no emergency radio call was received. The 2007 model EC135 carried no cockpit voice or flight data recorder, but investigators are hopeful data can still be extracted from onboard electronic systems, such as the Fadec on the helicopter’s Turbomeca Arrius engines.
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