A year after the fatal crash of a Police helicopter through the roof of a Glasgow pub, UK accident investigators are nearing completion of their probe. However, it will be around another six months before the conclusions are made public.
In a 28 November update, the Air Accidents Investigation Branch says it is several weeks away from finishing its draft report into the November 2013 incident. This will then be circulated to interested parties for comment in early 2015.
Ten people were killed when the Airbus Helicopters EC135 T2 (G-SPAO) plunged through the roof of the packed Clutha Vaults pub on the night of 29 November 2013. The death toll included the pilot and two police officers on board the aircraft, which was being operated by Bond Air Services on behalf of Police Scotland and was returning to base when the accident occurred.
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An interim report published in February said the EC135's Turbomeca Arrius 2B2 engines cut out due to fuel starvation, despite there being around 75kg of fuel remaining on board. Fore and aft fuel transfer valves had been set to the off position, the report says.
However, publication of the final report will not take place before mid-2015.
The AAIB says the delay is due to the lack of flight data or cockpit voice recorders installed in the helicopter.
"As a result, significant work was required to extract and analyse the contents of non-volatile memory (NVM) from micro-chipped equipment known to record data.
"This, together with further examination of the aircraft and subsequent tests, has now been completed, to the extent that the investigation team may reach its conclusions," it says.
Shortly after the accident a number of EC135 T2s were found to have malfunctioning fuel probes, which could have led to pilots over-estimating the amount remaining in the fuel tanks. Low fuel emergency warning sensors were unaffected, however.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
