Carnage in The Clutha as chopper fell from the sky… ten years on, a compelling minute by minute account of the Clutha disaster that took ten lives and left questions that …
By Gavin Madeley For The Scottish Daily Mail[1]
Published: 23:53, 24 November 2023 | Updated: 23:53, 24 November 2023
IT IS ten years this week since The Clutha Vaults became synonymous with horrifying tragedy after a police helicopter fell from the sky and plunged through the roof of the crowded Glasgow[2] bar. Ten people were killed amid the chaos and terror that erupted on that bustling Friday night just a month before Christmas[3].
A palpable sense of shock reverberated around the world in the wake of the crash, but for the residents of Glasgow the impact was compounded by a sense of incredulity at the arbitrary nature of the tragedy.
Mangled wreckage: A crane lifts the fuselage of the police helicopter out of the Clutha Vaults
Night of chaos and terror: (top row, from left) David Traill, Kirsty Nelis, Tony Collins, Gary Arthur and Colin Gibson were killed along with (bottom row, from left) Mark O’Prey, Samuel McGhee, Robert Jenkins, John McGarrigle and Joe Cusker
Then-First Minister Alex Salmond[4] called it a ‘black day for Glasgow and Scotland’, but the response to such adversity was notable for the extraordinary courage of the emergency services and ordinary members of the public who found themselves caught up in events beyond their control.
Here, we present in compelling detail a minute-by-minute account of the night terror rained down on Glasgow…
Friday November 29, 2013
8.44pm
Police Scotland’s helicopter G-SPAO takes to the sky from the Glasgow City Heliport at Stobcross Quay at the start of a routine night mission with Captain David Traill, 51, at the controls and two experienced police air observers on board. During the handover, the pilot is informed there are no technical issues with the Eurocopter EC135 T2+, which contains 400kg of fuel.
Alongside Capt Traill is PC Kirsty Nelis, 36, whose husband Mark is also a serving officer, while behind sits PC Tony Collins, 43, a married father of three.
Both officers have commendations for bravery, while Capt Traill is an RAF Gulf War veteran with more than 5,595 flying hours under his belt, mostly in helicopters.
He has been working with the police for four years and knows the helicopter, on loan from Bond Air Services, inside out.
Capt Traill records that the night is clear and ‘ceiling and visibility OK’ as they hover at 800ft over the Oatlands area, south of the Clyde, while responding to a report of a person hit by a train.
8.45pm
Far below, Glasgow is in party mood. Events have been laid on for the St Andrew’s Day weekend and the Christmas shopping season is under way.
The pubs and bars are packed and The Clutha in Stockwell Street is no exception as more than 100 people have packed into the Clydeside venue to watch ska band Esperanza.
Sammy McGhee, 56, is already sitting drinking in the atmosphere beside his friend John McGarrigle, 57, a poet and popular Clutha regular.
Mr McGhee is in high spirits having earlier phoned his daughter, Kerry, to clear the air after a row. He rings off after telling her: ‘Bye, I love you.’
Behind the bar, manager Saverio Petri, 54, is rushed off his feet pouring beers for the ‘Friday Drinks Club’ – a group of childhood friends, including Joe Cusker, 59, who meet on the last Friday of each month for a night out.
9.21pm
Nobody is found on the railway line so Capt Traill sets off to Dalkeith, near Edinburgh, 42 miles away for a routine surveillance task.
Half an hour later, he heads back to Glasgow.
On the return journey, an ‘audio gong’ and low fuel warning light flashes on the cockpit display and is acknowledged by the pilot.
Instead of considering landing or returning to base immediately, Capt Traill accepts further search duties.
9.30pm
Classroom assistant Donna Beattie, 38, receives a friend’s text to say the Clutha is mobbed and to enter via the ‘faraway door’.
As the pub fills up, regulars Alleena Coupe and her husband Gary, a retired firefighter, decide to move seats – a decision that will save their lives.
9.59pm
Police Scotland’s ‘eye in the sky’ spends the next 20 minutes covering three short surveillance tasks near Glasgow, above Bothwell, Uddingston and at Bargeddie.
10pm
The Clutha’s dance floor is bouncing as Esperanza fires up the exuberant crowd.
Window cleaner Mark O’Prey, 44, a 6ft 4in stalwart of the ska scene known as ‘Ops’ is pogoing madly near amateur footballer Gary Arthur, 48, father of then-Celtic starlet Chloe.
UK Border Agency worker Colin Gibson, 33, is celebrating a friend’s birthday and has never been in the bar before.
Mother-of-four Mary Kavanagh has offered to get the drinks in but her partner, film buff Robert Jenkins, 61, insists he will go and works his way through the throng to the bar. It is the last time they will speak.
10.19pm
Capt Traill requests and receives clearance from Glasgow ATC to return to base.
By now, a further four low fuel warnings have sounded but no concerns are relayed by the pilot and no further radio transmissions are received from Capt Traill as G-SPAO tracks along the Clyde towards Glasgow city centre at around 100mph.
10.20pm
Nearing the end of their first set, Esperanza launch into Be Brave, a slow and reflective track. Before they can finish it, the unthinkable happens.
10.21pm
Flying at 600ft, Capt Traill is still about three miles east of the helipad when G-SPAO’s right engine, starved of fuel, ‘flames out’.
Thirty-two seconds later, and still 1.8 miles short of Stobcross Quay, the left engine flames out leaving the helicopter without power.
Warning lights flare as both rotors stop turning.
With no time to react, the pilot frantically wrestles with the controls, but the helicopter sinks out of the sky towards the city below. Radar contact is lost with the doomed aircraft at 390ft.
10.22pm
On the sixth-floor roof of the Q Park car park at the St Enoch Centre, Gordon Smart, editor of The Scottish Sun, is on the phone when he hears what sounds like a misfiring engine. ‘I looked up and saw a helicopter falling out of the sky, just like a stone dropping.
‘It landed a few hundred yards from me but there was no explosion or fireball,’ he recalls. Instead, as the aircraft disappears behind the tall Holiday Inn Express building in Stockwell Street, it crashes through the roof of the single-storey Clutha with a ‘whoosh’.
It punches its way down onto the left side of the bar, engulfing it in thick grey dust and smoke.
Mr Petri has just assured four customers they would be served next when everything vanishes into clouds of darkening chaos.
Like many, his first thought is the vibrations from the music and dancing have caused the ceiling to collapse.
Esperanza’s frontman, Jake Barr, even jokes with the crowd: ‘We didn’t think we were going to bring the roof down.’
He cannot yet comprehend the seriousness of the situation – but for some it is already too late.
10.25pm
Amid the clearing dust, the full horror sinks in.
The band, who are unscathed, stop playing and the screams and moans of the injured are the only sound.
Some are trapped under rubble, others stumble about, covered in blood, grey with dust.
Mary Kavanagh is swept up by a sea of people pushing to get out and, grabbing a stranger’s coat, she finds herself outside looking up at a helicopter tail sticking out of the roof.
Shaking and covered in dust, she waits for Mr Jenkins to emerge but he never does.
The Coupes only escaped after belatedly moving to the undamaged end of the bar.
Mrs Coupe, a prison officer, from Motherwell, stays to helps others out of the bar: ‘There were no heroes, just everyday people trying their best,’ she later insists.
10.30pm
Ms Beattie, who sat near the ‘far-away door’ also flees unscathed and sees the first paramedics arrive to tend to the injured and the dying.
A tense silence has fallen over Stockwell Street, broken by sirens and the ringing of mobile phones.
It is only later she realises that, but for the text message, she could have been a victim: ‘I might have been in the wrong place.’
Meanwhile, the pub’s owner, Alan Crossan, is called at home where he is recovering from a heart attack and races to the scene: ‘I reached the other side of Albert Bridge and stared in disbelief. I thought, “How the hell can that happen?”.’
10.38pm
The area is quickly swamped with ambulances and fire engines from the rapid response team. At its peak, 70 firefighters are involved in the operation – including watch manager Brian Nelis, brother-in-law of PC Nelis.
Inside the building, an apocalyptic scene awaits.
Where revellers had danced and swayed to the music only minutes earlier, splintered beams and rafters jut out in all directions and the bar gantry has collapsed.
A fruit machine still flashes randomly and drinks abandoned by panicking customers litter the tables.
A rotor blade has missed Mr Petri by less than two feet. He struggles outside with a broken ankle and is asked to show a firefighter the gas isolation switch as they fear an explosion.
10.40pm
Passers-by risk their lives to join the rescue operation forming a human chain to drag away rubble and help lift people to safety.
It is a collective act of unplanned heroism. Off-duty nurse Allyson Clow, 53, and her friend Eddie Waltham, a retired firefighter, are 50 yards from the Clutha when the helicopter strikes and are among those who sprint to the scene.
Another of those links is the Labour MP for East Renfrewshire Jim Murphy, who is in the area with friends and arrives seconds after impact.
Visibly shaken, he later describes the ‘pandemonium’ he witnessed to BBC TV reporter James Cook, who points out a spot of blood on his pristine white shirt.
Looking down, Mr Murphy shakes his head and murmurs: ‘It’s not mine.’
10.45pm
Many of the injured are still trapped inside, including the Friday Drinks Club. All are badly hurt but would have been safe if their normal spot by the stage had been free.
As they wait for help, the club’s John Robson is pinned under his friend Calum Grierson, while next to them lies Mr Cusker, a retired local authority housing manager from Glasgow, who has multiple crush injuries.
Mr Robson initially thinks a bomb has gone off but cannot understand who would bomb the Clutha.
10.50pm
Firefighters free the body of Mr Arthur from under rubble. The sales advisor from Paisley has been killed outright by a head wound when the roof collapsed.
Elsewhere, building company administrator William Byrne helps others hold up a dislodged beam to free two men trapped beneath it. ‘At that point, I couldn’t believe anyone had died,’ he later admits. ‘I would like to think I was hoping for the best.
The injustice, the randomness – I can’t find the words.’
11pm
Firefighters Stephen Burns and Andrew Bradley reach the wreckage of G-SPAO and find the bodies of Capt Traill, PC Nelis and PC Collins still strapped into their seats.
All three have been killed instantly by the force of the helicopter crashing into the pub.
At the same time, Mr McGarrigle, of Cumbernauld, is found unconscious under a large pile of debris near the bar’s left front entrance.
A paramedic who examines him soon afterwards cannot find a pulse and he is pronounced dead.
His friend, Mr McGhee, a car wash maintenance worker, is found trapped under rubble nearby with severe chest injuries.
His life slips away before firefighters can free him from the ruins.
11.01pm
Paramedic Helen Robert is desperately fighting to save the life of Mr O’Prey, from East Kilbride, who is found trapped by rubble from the waist down and barely breathing. Tragically, soon after she attends to him, he too dies from his injuries.
11.05pm
Operations continue apace to remove the remaining wounded, including Norman Maciver, a 45-year-old pharmaceutical chemist, who is taken to hospital after suffering vertebrae fractures and catastrophic damage to his legs and knees.
He will endure years of operations and therapy simply to walk again. In all, 31 people are pulled alive from the wreckage, 14 of them seriously injured.
The walking wounded join other survivors at the nearby Holiday Inn Express, where they are transfixed by television news coverage relaying the shocking events unfolding just beyond the hotel’s reception window.
Saturday, November 30 – 1am
Rescuers find the body of the eighth victim Mr Gibson trapped under rubble and part of the helicopter.
He had been engaged to his partner Davie Hay with whom he shared a flat in Ayr.
3am
A rare chink of hope as Mr Cusker is brought out alive from the ruined building and rushed to hospital.
Work continues throughout the day to recover the dead and make the building safe.
After working tirelessly until 8am, firefighter Frank McKeown sets off to captain Stranraer FC to a 1-1 draw in a Scottish Cup tie against Clyde.
Flags are flown at half-mast and Glasgow cancels its annual St Andrew’s Day celebrations as a mark of respect.
Sunday, December 1
First light
Efforts begin to raise the mangled hulk of the Eurocopter EC135 through the roof of the Clutha.
11am
Hundreds gather for a memorial service at Glasgow Cathedral attended by Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.
The Queen and Prime Minister David Cameron send messages of condolence.
The Rev Dr Laurence Whitley tells the congregation: ‘Our great and irrepressible city shall stand together with our suffering ones and hand in hand go forward into the light.’
In the coming days, Prince Charles, Deputy PM Nick Clegg, and comedian Billy Connolly will visit the scene as a survivors’ fund is launched by Glasgow City Council.
2.34pm
Paramedics pronounce Mr Jenkins dead after the body of the gas firm employee, from East Kilbride, is discovered trapped in rubble and debris beneath the helicopter.
Thursday, December 12 – 11.25am
Thirteen days after the Clutha disaster Mr Cusker dies of his injuries in hospital.
He is the tenth and last fatality of the crash.
AFTERMATH
Amid the heartbreak of burying their dead, the clamour grows among grieving relatives for answers about what caused the disaster.
Within days, Bond Air Services grounds all 22 of its remaining EC135s amid concerns over a fuel gauge problem, but stresses it is unrelated to any issue with Police Scotland’s helicopter.
Bond is soon bought by aeronautics giant Babcock, despite a raft of compensation claims totalling GBP10million from up to 80 victims.
Shattered: The bar area of the Clutha Vaults after the tragedy
In 2015, the Clutha reopens and an Air Accidents Investigation Branch report confirms G-SPAO’s engines were ‘starved’ of fuel because its fuel pump switches were in the wrong position.
It stops short of blaming pilot error, suggesting the lack of a ‘black box’ flight data recorder – now fitted as mandatory on police helicopters – hampered its investigation.
The families believe they have yet to receive a full explanation for the tragedy.
In 2019, a fatal accident inquiry criticises Capt Traill for ‘taking a chance’ and ignoring repeated fuel warnings.
Sheriff Principal Craig Turnbull rules the pilot would have had time to switch one or both fuel pumps back on to revive the aircraft.
He could find no logical explanation for Capt Traill having not done so, adding: ‘It was a decision that had fatal consequences for ten people.’
References
- ^ Gavin Madeley For The Scottish Daily Mail (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Glasgow (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Christmas (www.dailymail.co.uk)
- ^ Alex Salmond (www.dailymail.co.uk)