Vauxhall Helicopter Crash
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On 16 January 2013, an
Agusta A109 The AgustaWestland AW109, originally the Agusta A109, is a lightweight, twin-engine, eight-seat multi-purpose helicopter designed and initially produced by the Italian rotorcraft manufacturer Agusta. It was the first all-Italian helicopter to ...
helicopter crashed in
Vauxhall Vauxhall ( ) is a district in South West London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. Vauxhall was part of Surrey until 1889 when the County of London was created. Named after a medieval manor, "Fox Hall", it became well known for ...
, London, after it collided with the
jib A jib is a triangular sail that sets ahead of the foremast of a sailing vessel. Its tack is fixed to the bowsprit, to the bows, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. Jibs and spinnakers are the two main types of headsail ...
of a construction crane attached to St George Wharf Tower. Two people died in the incident: the pilot, Pete Barnes, 50, and a pedestrian, Matthew Wood, 39, from
Sutton Sutton (''south settlement'' or ''south town'' in Old English) may refer to: Places United Kingdom England In alphabetical order by county: * Sutton, Bedfordshire * Sutton, Berkshire, a location * Sutton-in-the-Isle, Ely, Cambridgeshire * ...
in south London. Five people were taken to hospital and seven more were treated at the scene. The pilot had diverted because of poor visibility. The official report concluded he was probably unaware how close the tower was, and that the deaths were accidental. Barnes was an experienced helicopter pilot, flying commercially for many years – including having experience with the
Great North Air Ambulance Service The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) is a registered charity and air ambulance based in the United Kingdom. It operates a dedicated helicopter emergency service for the North of England with three aircraft. It serves North Yorkshire, ...
.


History of the flight

Barnes had been en route from
Redhill Aerodrome Redhill Aerodrome is an operational general aviation aerodrome located south-east of Redhill, Surrey, England, in green belt land. Redhill Aerodrome has a CAA Ordinary Licence (Number P421) that allows flights for the public transport of ...
to
Elstree Airfield London Elstree Aerodrome is an operational general aviation aerodrome located in Elstree, situated east of Watford, Hertfordshire, England. Elstree Aerodrome has Civil Aviation Authority Ordinary Licence P486, which allows flights for the pu ...
to collect a passenger, businessman
Richard Caring Richard Allan Caring (born 4 June 1948) is a British businessman. He initially built a business, International Clothing Designs, supplying Hong Kong-manufactured fashion to UK retailers. After surviving the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, he div ...
, and then fly onwards to
Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...
. Before the pilot had taken off, Caring called him twice on his mobile phone to suggest either delaying or cancelling the flight. However, Barnes chose to proceed with the flight across London, in low cloud and freezing temperatures. After being unable to land at Elstree at 07:46, whilst returning south to Redhill, Barnes had asked
Air Traffic Control Air traffic control (ATC) is a service provided by ground-based air traffic controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and through a given section of controlled airspace, and can provide advisory services to aircraft in non-controlled airs ...
at 07:56 for a change of route and permission to land at the
London Heliport London Heliport , previously called Battersea Heliport and currently known officially as the Edmiston London Heliport for sponsorship reasons, is London's only licensed heliport. The facility, which was built by W. & C. French and opened on 23 ...
in Battersea.


Accident

At 07:59
GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...
, the helicopter collided with the jib of a construction crane attached to St George Wharf Tower in Vauxhall. The existence of the crane was subject to a
Notice to Airmen A Notice to Airmen/Notice to Air Missions (NOTAM), is a notice filed with an aviation authority to alert aircraft pilots of potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the flight. NOTAMs are unclassified notices or ...
(NOTAM), but the investigators were unable to ascertain whether or not the pilot was aware of the NOTAM. Although the pilot would have seen the building when he previously flew in to Battersea, it was not on the database of the
GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...
system in use in the helicopter, as that had not been updated since May 2012. The impact sent the helicopter plunging towards the ground, where it caught fire, killing the pilot and pedestrian Matthew Wood. The
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...
reported that the crash happened "in heavy mist". The location of the incident was near
Vauxhall bus station Vauxhall bus station is a bus station in Vauxhall, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is operated by London Buses and owned and maintained by Transport for London, and is the second busiest bus station in the city. The station, which is adja ...
, where eyewitnesses reported seeing a "ball of flame". An eyewitness told the BBC that he had heard a "very unusual buzzing sound" just after 08:00.


Aircraft

The helicopter involved was an Agusta A109E with the registration G-CRST. At the time of the accident, it had flown for 2,304.5 hours. The helicopter was owned by
Castle Air A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...
of
Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a historic county and ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. Cornwall is bordered to the north and west by the Atlantic ...
and leased to RotorMotion of Redhill, Surrey.


Emergency response

The main wreckage landed in Wandsworth Road, in front of the Wendle Court building. Five people were taken to hospital and seven more were treated at the scene. The London Fire Brigade said that they had rescued one person from a burning car and that two office buildings, five cars and two motorbikes were damaged as the helicopter crashed to the ground. The scene of the wreckage itself was attended by 88 fire brigade personnel who extinguished the blaze within 20 minutes, while a further 57 worked to make the damaged crane safe and to help evacuate residents from the tower. The London Heliport contacted the Royal National Lifeboat Institution after having been unable to make contact with the helicopter. An inshore rescue boat from
Tower Lifeboat Station The Tower Lifeboat Station is a lifeboat station on the River Thames in London, UK, operated by the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI). It is located at Victoria Embankment on the North Bank of the Thames, next to Waterloo Bridge. The ...
was scrambled, as well as the London Heliport's own fire and rescue service after reports of people in the water, but was later recalled. A
fireboat A fireboat or fire-float is a specialized watercraft with pumps and nozzles designed for fighting shoreline and shipboard fires. The first fireboats, dating to the late 18th century, were tugboats, retrofitted with firefighting equipme ...
also conducted a precautionary search of the river.


Aftermath

Vauxhall station Vauxhall (, ) is a National Rail, London Underground and London Buses interchange station in central London. It is at the Vauxhall Cross road junction opposite the southern approach to Vauxhall Bridge over the River Thames in the district of ...
was closed in the aftermath of the incident but reopened the following day. Road users were still advised to avoid the area.
ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...
News reported that
First Capital Connect First Capital Connect (FCC) was a British train operating company, owned by FirstGroup, that operated the Thameslink and Great Northern sectors from April 2006 to September 2014 which later became the Thameslink, Southern and Great Northern (T ...
warned passengers against travelling in the area, though the station was at the time actually served by
South West Trains Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited, trading as South West Trains (SWT), was an English train operating company owned by Stagecoach, which operated the South Western franchise between February 1996 and August 2017. SWT operated the majorit ...
and
London Underground The London Underground (also known simply as the Underground or by its nickname the Tube) is a rapid transit system serving Greater London and some parts of the adjacent counties of Buckinghamshire, Essex and Hertfordshire in England. The ...
. Vauxhall bus station took five days to fully reopen. Nine Elms Lane remained closed so that a Terex TC 2800-1 lattice boom truck crane (one of the biggest mobile cranes in the country), brought down from
Leyland, Lancashire Leyland () is a town in South Ribble, Lancashire, England, six miles (10 km) south of Preston. The population was 35,578 at the 2011 Census. The name of the town is Anglo-Saxon, meaning "untilled land". History English Leyland was an a ...
, could be used to remove the jib of the damaged Terex CTL 180 crane. The work was completed by 11 February, with all roads reopened.


Reactions

Kate Hoey Catharine Letitia Hoey, Baroness Hoey (born 21 June 1946), better known as Kate Hoey, is a Northern Irish politician and life peer who served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Home Affairs from 1998 to 1999 and Minister for Sport from 1999 t ...
, the
Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...
Member of Parliament for the Vauxhall constituency, told the BBC that, in her opinion, there should be an "inquiry into the increasing numbers of helicopters flying around London". In 1991, she had tabled a Ten Minute Rule Bill to tighten the rules on helicopter and heliport legislation, although the bill was not successful in becoming law.
Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
, the
Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current m ...
, announced a review of the regulations concerning flying in central London and the safety of tall buildings. David Cameron said, on the day of the accident, that there would be a review of the rules governing helicopter flights over central London.


Investigation

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), the body responsible for air accident investigation in the UK, announced an inquiry into the incident. The Civil Aviation Authority announced that the crash was the first fatal helicopter crash in central London since records began in 1976. A preliminary report published by the AAIB on 23 January indicated that Caring, the client Barnes was to collect, had expressed concerns about the weather and twice suggested he delay take-off. But Barnes stated that he had already started his engine, and chose to proceed with the flight across London in weather later described by the Met Office as prone to widespread low cloud, poor visibility and patches of freezing fog. After being unable to land at Elstree at 07:46, Barnes decided to return to Redhill. After being put under
radar control Radar control is a method of providing air traffic control services with the use of radar and Automatic Dependent Surveillance (ADS–B). The provision of air traffic control services without the use of radar is called procedural control. Separati ...
, having entered the London CTR at 07:55, at 07:56 Barnes asked ATC for clearance to divert to the London Heliport. The ATC controller placed Barnes in a hold over the River Thames between
Vauxhall Bridge Vauxhall Bridge is a Grade II* listed steel and granite deck arch bridge in central London. It crosses the River Thames in a southeast–northwest direction between Vauxhall on the south bank and Pimlico on the north bank. Opened in 1906, i ...
and
Westminster Bridge Westminster Bridge is a road-and-foot-traffic bridge over the River Thames in London, linking Westminster on the west side and Lambeth on the east side. The bridge is painted predominantly green, the same colour as the leather seats in the ...
, while checking with controllers at Battersea as to whether they could accept the helicopter. The report stated that at 07:59, just 15 seconds before hitting the crane, the final exchange between ATC and the helicopter, callsign Rocket 2, was: * ATC: ''Rocket 2, yeah Battersea diversion approved; you're cleared to Battersea.'' * Barnes: ''Lovely thanks; Rocket 2.'' * ATC: ''Rocket 2, contact Battersea 122.9.'' * Barnes: ''229, thanks a lot.'' After the exchange ended at 07:59:18, when the helicopter was approximately south-west of Vauxhall Bridge, it immediately afterwards began to turn right. At 07:59:25, it struck the crane on the south side of the river from the south-west end of Vauxhall Bridge. The AAIB report also stated that: * Calculations suggest that the collision happened at about above ground level. The total height from the ground to the top of the crane's jib was . * The main rotor head, gearbox, and a section of one of the four rotor blades from the helicopter, which had all separated from the fuselage as an immediate result of the initial collision with the jib, landed in the loading bay of
New Covent Garden Market New Covent Garden Market in Nine Elms, London, is the largest wholesale fruit, vegetable and flower market in the United Kingdom. It covers a site of and is home to about 200 fruit, vegetable and flower companies. The market serves 40% of the ...
in Nine Elms, where they hit a delivery van. * The
solar-powered Solar power is the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity, either directly using photovoltaics (PV) or indirectly using concentrated solar power. Photovoltaic cells convert light into an electric current using the photovoltaic ef ...
red warning lights on top of the crane were not switched on during the crash, because the official requirement was that "the obstacle be lit at night only." An official Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) warning had been issued about the structure. In March 2013,
BBC London BBC London is the BBC English Region producing local radio, television, teletext and online services in London and parts of the surrounding area. Its output includes the daily ''BBC London News'' and weekly '' Sunday Politics'' on television, ...
report indicated that the crash could have been prevented, based on a study written in 2005 to which "19 experts contributed, from organisations including
National Air Traffic Services NATS Holdings, formerly National Air Traffic Services and commonly referred to as NATS, is the main air navigation service provider in the United Kingdom. It inherited the traditions of UK air traffic control, which (founded over Croydon Air ...
(NATS), the
MoD Mod, MOD or mods may refer to: Places * Modesto City–County Airport, Stanislaus County, California, US Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Mods (band), a Norwegian rock band * M.O.D. (Method of Destruction), a band from New York City, US ...
, the
Metropolitan Police Air Support Unit The Air Support Unit (ASU) was a Central Operations branch of London's Metropolitan Police Service. The main responsibility of the unit was to provide aerial reconnaissance and other air support operations. Helicopters are particularly useful in ...
and the
British Helicopter Advisory Board The British Helicopter Association is the UK industry association for helicopter transport. History The British Helicopter Advisory Board was formed in January 1969 at the instigation of some leading members of commercial helicopter companies in ...
". A number of safety issues had been raised by the studyparticularly relating to visibility, meteorology and flying in a crowded and complex urban environmentbut the CAA had not yet made any changes to the air rules. However, the studies and commentary were claimed to be productive. The final report was published on 9 September 2014. The report identified two causal factors: :1. The pilot turned onto a collision course with the crane attached to the building and was probably unaware of the helicopter’s proximity to the building at the beginning of the turn. :2. The pilot did not see the crane or saw it too late to take effective avoiding action. Ten recommendations were made. An inquest determined that the deaths of Barnes and Wood were accidental.


Notes

#The NOTAM read: "Q) EGTT/QOBCE/IV/M/ AE/000/008/5129N00007W001 B) FROM: 13/01/07 17:00C) TO: 13/03/15 23:59 E) HIGH RISE JIB CRANE (LIT AT NIGHT) OPR WI 1NM 5129N 00007W, HGT 770FT AMSL (VAUXHALL, CENTRAL LONDON), OPS CTC 020 7820 3151 12-10-0429/AS 2.", which translates as "In the London Flight Information Region an obstacle has been erected affecting both instrument and visual traffic. Aerodrome and en route traffic is affected. The obstacle is from the surface up to 800 ft amsl and is positioned within 1 nm radius of 51°29’ N 000° 07’W. The obstacle will be in place from 1700 hrs on 7 Jan 2013 to 2359 hrs on 15 March 2013. It is a high rise jib crane (lit at night extending to 770 ft amsl). #122.9 MHz is the VHF communications frequency for the control tower at London Heliport, callsign Battersea Tower."London Heliport – Textual Data"
NATS
AIS AIS may refer to: Medicine * Abbreviated Injury Scale, an anatomical-based coding system to classify and describe the severity of injuries * Acute ischemic stroke, the thromboembolic type of stroke * Androgen insensitivity syndrome, an intersex ...
. 13 December 2012. Retrieved 3 February 2013.


References


External links

* AAIB formal report: https://www.gov.uk/aaib-reports/aar-3-2014-g-crst-16-january-2013 **
Air Accidents Investigation Branch The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) investigates civil aircraft accidents and serious incidents within the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and crown dependencies. It is also the Space Accident Investigation Authority (SAIA ...
:
Special Bulletin Published – Agusta A109E accident in Vauxhall, London
" 23 January 2013.
Archive
**
Special Bulletin S1/2013 – Agusta A109E, G-CRST
"
Archive
*
AAIB Bulletin S1/2013 ''SPECIAL''
– initial report from AAIB, 23 January 2013
Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vauxhall helicopter crash 2013 disasters in the United Kingdom 2013 in London Aviation accidents and incidents in 2013 January 2013 events in the United Kingdom Aviation accidents and incidents in London Accidents and incidents involving helicopters Transport in the London Borough of Lambeth History of the London Borough of Lambeth Vauxhall