One of my collegaues has had to go home because she witnessed the crash, she was really shaken up by it.
RIP to the two dead and hope those injured a swift recovery.
According to the BBC she did… she made a lucky escape!
Apparently he sould have been in it but he was running late this morning… Good job!
+1
Seems to be a bit of a social disease these days that whenever there’s some kind of tragic event, a fair number of people’s first reaction is to whip out the camera phone… And then claim they were filming it “whilst running to see if they could help”. My ar5e!
I passed close to there 45 minutes earlier (from Stockwell) and found out about this about an hour ago on leaving an all-day meeting I was at. Sobering, to say the least.
Redrat - glad you’re ok, I also thought about you when I heard of this. Thanks for checking in.
Looks like it hit the crane at the top of that new tall circular skyscraper behind the Brunswick House antique shop, then crashed outside the old petrol station on Wandsworth Rd about 500ft away. This view shows the crane from the spot it landed. Another view of the crane.
Must have been terrifying for all who witnessed it.
Very sad indeed and thoughts are with the families of the pilot and car driver who were killed, plus those injured. What a shock for those witnessing it also.
I motorbiked in this morning - but was ready and left earlier than usual, so had already crossed the river north by 8am. I had no idea aboit the accident until my work colleagues arrived and told me.
RIP - very sobering.
Personally I disagree with this. If you’ve seen some footage where someone should have been doing something instead of filming, fair enough, but I’ve not.
Almost all the footage on the BBC was from people’s phones, the pictures I posted above, within 30 seconds of reading the thread are from people on Twitter with camera phones. I’m glad we’re in this day and age where information is passed round so quickly. I quite surprised no-one had a GoPro on their bicycle helmet, that filmed it. Maybe they did, but decided it bad taste to post.
Go back 10 or 15 years and you have to wait for the news at lunch time to then be told what happened, or maybe see someone stood in front of where it happened.
I see that as a bit of a grey area. Is it newsworthy footage or morbid entertainment? I was studying at home when the news of that girl going missing broke last year. I was keeping half an eye on the rolling news when I decided to pop out for milk. We have Tivo, so I went to pause the TV while I went out. Now if my motives had been entirely selfless, and all I really cared about was her safe return, then I could have turned the TV off and picked up the news when I got back, but my instinct was to put the news on hold in case I missed something.
That’s not right is it?
Seems to me that being made aware of the Helicopter incident in order to make alternative travel plans would be sufficient, without the accompanying graphic video footage.
tbh, with burning aircraft fuel around, I wouldn’t have been going anywhere near it no matter how much I wanted to help