OMG, a helicopter crashed into the Clutha Inn in Glasgow

[GoodNeighbour]

Just heard this on BBC News 24.

I hope everybody is ok.
What on earth?!!

Yes there are some people who bare their souls in a really tacky, mawkish and attention seeking way on facebook but I think it's okay for people who are unconnected to events to have had a strong reaction to it. It's inevitable that when something happens close to home people will be strongly affected by it.

I don't have any facebook friends who display this kind of behaviour, all I can see is shock and empathy.

Didi, yes, what you write does make sense but I think that some people (who were not directly connected to those lost) need an outlet to share their shock and bewilderment. I suppose it is their way of grieving and sharing their experiences of loss.

Take a break from Facebook. I wish I had the right words to offer you and your dh comfort but I don't know what to say. Your dh, his colleagues and their families are in so many people's thoughts even although they are strangers to them.
Try to get some sleep as that in itself is healing.

Didi - what Artisan says makes sense. I read your post earlier about your DH and wanted to say something but had no idea what. So I said nothing but have been thinking of you both all day. I get what you are saying and understand that some of the FB stuff seems mawkish but most people are trying, however clumsily, to show sympathy.

Thanks artisan, I suppose I hadn't thought that people are thinking of them.

I don't tend to write big personal outbursts on Facebook, I don't really agree with it but others do and I can normally just ignore and think everyone is different. But it's really got to me tonight.

Just sent DH out the door back to work. He will probably be back at the site again. It's just horrible but I feel I have no right to b upset! Somewhere out there are families who's husbands/dads went to work or a night out and didn't come home. How can I be upset compared to what they must feel?!

Sleep would be lovely but unfortunately I have a DD who doesn't believe in sleep :)

Thank you also cider.

This is DHs first major incident of this kind, and I am trying so hard just to be a strong support for him. But I don't talk to anyone about it so it's allbottled up, possibly making me a little irrational!

You can talk here. You don't even have to say much! Iykwim. It must be very hard.

I'm from Dublin and from what people have been saying about Glasgow and Glaswegians response, it reminds me very much of Dublin. I really feel for everyone and I'm sure most of the city is in shock.

Didi there are so many of us out here thinking of the people who have to deal with the aftermath of this.

There is nothing we can do that is concrete to help, but we would if we could.

And there is always a space and an ear here for you, any time you need.

Squoosh, I heard one over head today too and just thought how brave you'd need to be to fly in one today.

Your poor DP Nomoreloser but very relieved to hear he is now safe.

Didi, I do understand what you mean with 'grief porn' - everybody want a piece of the 'action' .
Your DH will have to find a way to come to terms with what he has experienced and it might take a while. I don't think that there is much you can do to actively make it go away.

And yes, FB is just hideous. Step away just now if it is upsetting.
{hugs} to you both.

I totally understand what you're feeling re "grief porn". I have no connection with anyone directly involved in this tragedy, so far as I know, other than geography. I live near the Clyde just along the water from the Clutha.

Last weekend the helicopter hovered over my roof as it often has in the past. Knowing that many of the North Sea helicopter "incidents" do not get anywhere near the media, I've worried for a long time that something like this would happen sooner or later. I stayed up until the wee small hours until I couldn't keep my eyes open on Friday night. I got up too soon because I couldn't stay safe in my bed whilst there was a possibility that someone was trapped cold, injured and frightened in the rubble a couple of miles away as the crow flies.

I can't believe that life has been going on as normal for many people in the West of Scotland as this horrible drama unfolds. I see posts on FB of people putting their Christmas trees up today whereas yesterday they were declaring sorrow at this disaster. The whole FB phenomenon of support pages springing up with thousands of likes in next to no time. Some of what is being posted lacks empathy and consideration for families still holding their breath and waiting. Most posters from these online communities have NOTHING to do with the families and friends of victims yet they presume to speak for them? Some poor souls are waiting in anguish not knowing if their loved ones are alive or dead and possibly torturing themselves with imagined suffering. Surely we can hold a silent vigil until the last body is out safe? Memorial services and fund raising are for the future. The incident is far from over. Far from safe for those involved in the rescue and recovery operation. My heart breaks for the suffering I see on the faces of those relatives anxiously waiting and for the loss of so many lives.

They have found a ninth body in the rubble.

Terrible news.

Panda you have summed up perfectly how I feel!! I do not understand the culture of "liking" pages upon pages of tributes and then sticking ur Christmas tree up! I know life goes on but for the families this will be the a horrible time of year!

A "friend" on Facebook this morning who has a tiny connection to the police named a crew member from the helicopter before the name was public. A big post of how he had met them once and rip. But the person hadn't been named, now I suspect most of the force knew the names of the crew by then but out of respect stayed quiet. He got about 40 sympathetic comments but how was it respectful of the family?!

Grrr that's been annoying me all day!

I suspect the death number will rise but if I was family and waiting for news I would not give up any hope and these candle things on Facebook would be annoying me. (Not that I'd be on Facebook cause I'm sure I'd have more important stuff)

Thank you everyone for offering a safe place to talk. It is helping to get it off my chest and it has helped me to know that genuinely people are thinking of the emergency services just now.

Dh and I were in Boston on 9/11, just about to leave our hotel when the news came on in the lobby that a plane had crashed in to one of the Twin Towers. We watched the 2nd one crash live on TV.
To this day I cannot describe our emotions or the reactions of those around us - because the planes had originated from Boston the overwhelming majority of passengers were from the city. Everybody knew somebody who had perished, or knew somebody who knew somebody or was almost going to board one of those flights (Boston is really not that big). It gave a dimension to that catastrophe well beyond the political to be amongst a community so horribly bereaved. The full page obituaries that followed in the days after were just heartbreaking.

I've been thinking of this in the last few days since the crash in Glasgow. Not the same scale, no terrorists etc but the same suddenness, 'didn't see it coming' horror and quite similar reactions in the community.
IME disatsers like this bring out the best in people (running towards the pub rather than away from it, emergency services working as long as it took rather than to the end of their shift, drs turning up in A+E departments before they had been called, shops providing food and drink at all hours) AND sadly the worst (that intrusive reporter, some of the excesses of 'grief porn', attention seeking behaviours. FB makes everything worse because it encouraged 'showing off' IMO).

This is still so raw; it's going to take weeks and months for events to sink in and for people affected beginning to come to terms with what happened.

Love and light to all of you x.

Panda I completely agree with you, I only moved to Glasgow in September. I've been past the Clutha many times since I arrived here but have not visited and yet do still feel sadness for all those involved in this awful accident. I am however embarrassed that a friend felt it appropriate to tag me in in a Facebook status saying how relieved she was that I am ok despite the fact that she knew I was at home on Friday evening and nowhere near it.

It definitely felt like some opportunity to show how much she "cared" but I feel it showed disrespect for those who have genuine reason to be relieved and also against those who will not be able to feel the relief but only grieve for the loved ones they have lost.

It's been a privilege though to be in this wonderful city and witness first hand the compassion of Glasgow's lovely people at this time of sorrow.

So sad watching rage private ambulances drive the deceased from the scene. I had a real lump in my throat watching the emergency services salute. I haven't saluted since training (I think) and I really really hope I don't ever have to.

I think it's been extremely sad watching it on the news. DH slightly suspicious that the helicopter could not have landed in the middle of the street, why the roof?? And the day before St. Andrew's Day?

What does your H mean? There is no way the pilot attempted to land on the roof deliberately.

IrnBru, please keep your conspiracy theories to yourself please. There is an ongoing investigation into why this happened. I doubt the date will play any part in the conclusions.

I find your comment very disrespectful and unnecessary.

I think there was a suggestion the pilot may have mistaken the Clutha's flat felt roof for the ground.

Not sure what your husband thinks St Andrew's Day has to do with the crash. Some people love to dream up a conspiracy.

I am no pilot, but it is my understanding that helicopters have only v little forward drift when their rotors are not working unlike planes which can glide and manoeuvre for quite a while.
There has been speculation that the pilot was trying to ditch in the Clyde or even on the rather wide road outside the pub.

I think these kind of questions will need to be answered by technical experts.

I am so sorry for the people still waiting to hear about loved ones - the pain of the couple of the news who were unhappy with the progress of the recovery operation was so obvious. I hope they find closure soon. I know they'll be hoping against hope, but I for one cannot seen anybody being pulled out alive now .

A suggestion from who though? The pilot was well used to the location, the base was two miles away.

And from eye witness accounts, the helicopter was in free fall therefore not making any kind of controlled landing.

And experienced pilots are not going to attempt to land in an area where injury and death would be inevitable. Glasgow green, a huge car park and the Clyde are all seconds away, he would aim for there first and foremost. All aviation experts that have been interviewed have all stated the idea of him attempting to land there was unlikely.

I cannot remember it was amongst the hundreds of people they've interviewed on the news. No one knows exactly what happened that's why the police are appealing to anyone with phone footage of the crash to send it in to them.

Eye witness accounts can't really be relied upon for any kind of accuracy.

With all due dis respect irnbru, your DH is talking out of his arse.

Exactly squoosh. The news interviewed a girl on Friday night who was in the pub and she was the first to suggest that. But a shocked, stunned member of the public who is making shocked statements aren't going to be able to accurately comment on the reasons for the accident. I mean absolutely no disrespect to here.

And police routinely ask for video footage, perfectly normal for a major enquiry.