Helicopter Crashes into Crane in Fog | London Helicopter Disaster 2013

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  • Опубліковано 20 чер 2024
  • A Helicopter Pilot Distracted in the Fog Crashes into an Unlit 700 foot tall building crane in London........
    In the Morning 16th January 2013 an an Agusta A109 helicopter crashed whilst Traveling From Elstree Airfield to The London Heliport.
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КОМЕНТАРІ • 518

  • @PlainlyDifficult
    @PlainlyDifficult  6 місяців тому +36

    Thanks for watching, check out me other bits!
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    • @ISoldBinLadensViagraOnEbay
      @ISoldBinLadensViagraOnEbay 6 місяців тому +1

      I’m Stalin

    • @Boo-dawg.
      @Boo-dawg. 6 місяців тому

      What happened to the passengers on the helicopter? It might be a stupid question, and the answer might be obvious, but I'd like to know for sure. I just never heard about them afterward.

    • @Microwave_Dave
      @Microwave_Dave 6 місяців тому +1

      Hope you don't mind a bit of constructive criticism, but the background music is too loud and distracting. Sadly it's the first video of yours that I can't enjoy listening to.
      I've listened to you since the beginning and never noticed music on your videos before. I just enjoyed listening to your voice and calm explanations and great story telling.

    • @tinygrim
      @tinygrim 6 місяців тому +1

      Thank you so much! You've kept my nerves calm and mind thinking. Which is huge these days 😢 ...so glad I heard more of your music. I love it . I'll have to save some money for one. A relax , relax one. Would be great for when reading. Ty for the feet. 😊. And keep that pace easy 😊😊😊 your awesome 💯

  • @sim77410
    @sim77410 6 місяців тому +207

    The crane operator was meant to have been working at the time of the collision, but had overslept for the first time in 3 years. He arrived at site just as the helicopter collided with the jib.

    • @KiwiCatherineJemma
      @KiwiCatherineJemma 6 місяців тому +16

      He should have bought a Lottery ticket on the way home ! Clearly it was NOT the Crane Driver's day, to be issued with a cloud, Harp and Wings !

    • @lowwastehighmelanin
      @lowwastehighmelanin 5 місяців тому +3

      Oh my stars...

    • @WhiskeyGulf71
      @WhiskeyGulf71 4 місяці тому +6

      If he had been at work on time the crane jib wouldn’t have been parked in the up position so likely no one would have died this fateful day. Sadly a chain of event is usually behind these types of accidents, not just a single thing.

    • @melodymacken9788
      @melodymacken9788 Місяць тому

      OMG. Really.

    • @lasagnaocelot4766
      @lasagnaocelot4766 10 днів тому

      @@KiwiCatherineJemma A REMINDER! YOUR LUCK CAN RUN OUT! I suggest buying lottery tickets on your lowest point, worst possible luck EVER, because your luck will be bouncing back from the low.

  • @CarolineBearoline
    @CarolineBearoline 6 місяців тому +115

    I feel like "London Fog" (and an already tight flight path) is enough of a reason to light ANY precariously placed crane for the duration of the job

    • @nlwilson4892
      @nlwilson4892 6 місяців тому +12

      Not safe to have the lights on whilst it is in operation, but there should have been a rule of having them on and the crane not operating once visibility was below a certain level. That said, it would be safe to operate it with lower visibility than it was safe to be flying a helicopter around with warning lights on buildings. So you're effectively stopping the construction company from working for the benefit of helicopters taking risk that they shouldn't have been taking.

    • @CarolineBearoline
      @CarolineBearoline 6 місяців тому +1

      @@nlwilson4892 Thanks for the context

    • @fyrman9092
      @fyrman9092 6 місяців тому +3

      It begs the question of flying so close in an urban setting?

    • @davidcox3076
      @davidcox3076 6 місяців тому +2

      @@fyrman9092 Yep. Would think a higher altitude would be in order when it's all tall buildings and tower cranes.

    • @LRM12o8
      @LRM12o8 6 місяців тому +1

      @nlwilson4892 how is it not safe to have the lights on while operating the crane?!!
      I call bullshit and plead you to substantiate that claim!

  • @WideLoad405
    @WideLoad405 6 місяців тому +246

    In aviation, Completion Bias is colloquially known as "get-there-itis". But it's more specifically about powering on to your destination. It leads to a lot of bad decisions that result in crashes. A lot of VFR into IMC. Flying under visual flight rules into instrument meteorological conditions. After that, a number of things can happen. Spatial disorientation and icing being common.

    • @ratdude747
      @ratdude747 6 місяців тому +33

      Same thing that killed Kobe and Gianna Bryant (and 6 others)... helicopter crash in fog due to a pilot's Get-There-Itis... only into a mountain instead of a crane.

    • @lairdcummings9092
      @lairdcummings9092 6 місяців тому +8

      ​@@ratdude747same as killed RFK, Jr.

    • @thing_under_the_stairs
      @thing_under_the_stairs 6 місяців тому +11

      @@lairdcummings9092 I think his case was more of his being a relatively inexperienced pilot, taking on a situation that he wasn't fully trained to handle but thought he could anyway, with Get-There-Itis as a contributing factor.

    • @qwerty112311
      @qwerty112311 6 місяців тому +5

      This wasn’t get there itis, it was poor airmanship. Had he followed NOTAMs, what he did was perfectly fine. But he didn’t.

    • @LMacNeill
      @LMacNeill 6 місяців тому +3

      @@lairdcummings9092 I think you mean JFK, Jr.

  • @zh84
    @zh84 6 місяців тому +34

    For those who don't know and want to, a figure followed by "amsl" means "above mean sea level.".

    • @revenevan11
      @revenevan11 6 місяців тому +7

      Why can't the sea level just be nice? 🥺
      (JK I know it *mean*s average lol)

    • @MkurugenziMwenyekiti
      @MkurugenziMwenyekiti 6 місяців тому

      @@revenevan11 😄

  • @SentinelSays
    @SentinelSays 6 місяців тому +54

    I used to work full time with the Air Ambulance in London (Medical personnel, not flight crew) and I can tell you one thing for sure, it is really hard to visualise how disorienting fog or low clouds can be until you are literally flying inside of the thickest sections of it. More than once I could have sworn we were going left when we were really turning to the right. It's a terrifying place to be at a time like that. It's bad enough on the ground in a fast response vehicle in the fog, but at least you're not going to fall 500ft if it all goes pete tong.

    • @rrice1705
      @rrice1705 6 місяців тому +8

      Agreed. I still remember the first few times I did flying to instrument reference. Fixed-wing, but the principles are the same. It's creepy as hell to have your senses telling you you're doing one thing, and the instruments are saying something completely different. You really have to experience it to understand it.

  • @Reflectivekangaroo
    @Reflectivekangaroo 6 місяців тому +274

    I went to school with the pilots daughter. I remember been satdown in the 'mess' (dinning room) having lunch all laughing and joking as 11yr kids do.
    Out of nowhere, our housemaster walks up to our table, grabs her lunch tray, and tells her that she needs to come with him.
    I'll never forget that moment. It couldn't have happened to a nicer and kinder family.
    R.I.P Pete Barnes -

    • @markwallis7199
      @markwallis7199 6 місяців тому +4

      That's so sad, thankfully I can't imagine.

    • @randomdazz
      @randomdazz 6 місяців тому +1

      awww :(

    • @katiekane5247
      @katiekane5247 6 місяців тому +6

      Crappy way to make a bad situation worse. Was it not possible to let her finish lunch and perhaps guide her gently away?

    • @Reflectivekangaroo
      @Reflectivekangaroo 6 місяців тому +17

      ​@katiekane5247 If I was to make a guess, it was out of fear of her finding out online or something. Most of us had smartphones by that point and it was a heading story that day.

    • @ItsJustLisa
      @ItsJustLisa 6 місяців тому

      How awful! That poor child.

  • @alankeith7866
    @alankeith7866 6 місяців тому +434

    The warning lights on the crane should have been on in fog, full intensity. That might have helped.

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  6 місяців тому +103

      I agree

    • @Ragetiger1
      @Ragetiger1 6 місяців тому +49

      should have but the law states only at night with medium intensity. nothing for adverse conditions

    • @dannnmerkle7930
      @dannnmerkle7930 6 місяців тому +70

      I am a pretty good driver I think but the one car I've totalled was in heavy fog jumping this roundabout they just added on backroads I drive a lot. Was looking for the bright red 4 way stop light but instead all I saw was dim white lights after it was already too late. They even gave me a ticket, Failure to control the traffic control device. Judge reduced the ticket as much as he could and then a few months later they changed it back to a 4 way stop. Kinda feel like the city owes me a car.

    • @mixmashandtinker3266
      @mixmashandtinker3266 6 місяців тому +44

      That is a rule here in Sweden.
      Any crane, tower or other construction above a certain height (i think 40 m) has to have warning lights on at all times.

    • @jirivorobel942
      @jirivorobel942 6 місяців тому +53

      @@dannnmerkle7930 You failed to adjust your speed to the conditions - in plain speech you drove where you couldn't see. It would have been the same if there was a deer in place of the roundabout. Or it could've been a neighbor.

  • @AlKohaiMusic
    @AlKohaiMusic 6 місяців тому +122

    Given that lights on the construction site were required to be installed by law I don’t understand the reasoning behind limited this safety feature to just night time. I am all for reducing our collective energy usage, but I think safety equipment might be the one legitimate caveat here.

    • @GigsVT
      @GigsVT 6 місяців тому +10

      maybe blind the operator and workers?

    • @ZGryphon
      @ZGryphon 6 місяців тому +30

      @@GigsVT That's probably it. Daytime aircraft clearance lights are high-intensity white strobes rather than the medium-intensity slow-pulse red ones used at night; they would be absolute hell to work anywhere close to.

    • @MadScientist267
      @MadScientist267 6 місяців тому +2

      Caveat? 🤦‍♂️
      Exception?

    • @pulaski1
      @pulaski1 6 місяців тому +17

      Given London's frequent fogs, they should have been an additional requirement for the lights to be on during _daytime_ periods of reduced visibility. I am not sure how that would be managed (automated or manual), but there surely must be a solution.

    • @alisonwilson9749
      @alisonwilson9749 6 місяців тому +1

      @@pulaski1 A better solution would be to ban all but the emergency services' helicopters from flying over London in misty/foggy conditions.

  • @ElementofKindness
    @ElementofKindness 6 місяців тому +23

    I recall years ago, needing to scud run back to our departure airport on the other side of low mountains, due to a lowering cloud deck. We chose to strictly follow a river back, knowing no rising terrain, high rises, or radio towers would be in the middle of the river. Definitely ended up braking FAA regs, but we were able to safely return home.

  • @knickohr01
    @knickohr01 6 місяців тому +77

    Accidents like this are exactly the reason why I don't understand how some people think that flying cars are a good idea.

    • @knickohr01
      @knickohr01 6 місяців тому +13

      @@Failure_Is_An_Option If you want to talk numbers I'm not gonna stop you. Although I doubt that there is a significant amount of data regarding flying cars, as they never really left the concept stage and there are only a handful of prototypes.
      I know that accidents like the one in the video are rare, but this is also due to the fact that the amount of helicopters flying in cities is quite low. Now imagine what could happen on a foggy day if not one, but one hundred or one thousand helicopters (or flying cars for that matter) would fly over a city. In this video, the building that was hit was under construction, but imagine this was an office building or a apartment building. That would be much worse.

    • @MarianneKat
      @MarianneKat 6 місяців тому

      They would be autopilot😊

    • @andreasu.3546
      @andreasu.3546 6 місяців тому +8

      @@MarianneKat Hopefully not Tesla's rendition of one.

    • @rasmusjensen8271
      @rasmusjensen8271 6 місяців тому +5

      ​​​@@Failure_Is_An_Option according to the IATA there were 5 fatal airliner accidents with loss of crew or passengers in 2022 over 32 million flights giving an average of 0.16 crashes per million.
      Assuming regular civilians can live up to the standards of our airliners, just in the US with 50 million cars (out of the 290 mil on the road) doing 2 trips a day = 100 million trips you would have 16 fatal flying cars crashing a day.
      All accident rates are 1.21 per million flights or 121 flying car crashes a day

    • @misseselise3864
      @misseselise3864 6 місяців тому +12

      at this point, i don’t think the majority of humans would be smart enough to figure out how to drive a flying car

  • @markwallis7199
    @markwallis7199 6 місяців тому +18

    There is so much more to this story and I would recommend that anyone who is interested read the AAIB report. What seems to be missing here is that Pete Barnes was flying an autopilot equipped twin over London in IFR conditions which is just fine. He was communicating with ATC and asking if Battersea was open yet and they held him so he was orbiting near the tower on autopilot. When ATC told him that Battersea had opened he changed the setting bug on his autopilot to direct Battersea which as history recalls took his path directly through the jib of the crane. If the call or his reaction were 30 seconds later then perhaps no tragedy for all involved acknowledging the post below about his young daughter.

  • @pistachiopoptarts
    @pistachiopoptarts 6 місяців тому +25

    The visual effects in your videos are breathtaking. Watch out, Michael Bay.😆

  • @BrilliantDesignOnline
    @BrilliantDesignOnline 6 місяців тому +5

    Changes frequencies, looks up, 'That's strange, why are all those pigeons SITTING in a cloud?'

  • @LadyAmanita
    @LadyAmanita 6 місяців тому +12

    You should do the 787 7th Avenue Helicopter incident, which happened in NYC on June 10, 2019. The pilot is believed to have crashed his helicopter into the roof of a skyscraper in order to avoid a worse accident on the ground. However- questions persist, like why was the pilot flying in such weather, or how did he manage to end up in restricted airspace? That incident is also being used to make the case for banning or at least much more heavily restricting non essential helicopter traffic over Manhattan.

  • @Desopolis
    @Desopolis 6 місяців тому +8

    You might be interested in the Dallas crane collapse. They didn’t let it rotate in high wind and it came down and smashed a huge apartment building.
    I was a few blocks away at the time and vividly remember the huge storm and explosion sound

  • @inappropriatejohnson
    @inappropriatejohnson 6 місяців тому +14

    Fact: flying cars gonna be GREAT for this channel. Prolly bad for people, though.

    • @notmenotme614
      @notmenotme614 6 місяців тому

      Nobody mentioned flying cars but you

  • @SiVlog1989
    @SiVlog1989 6 місяців тому +81

    My Dad worked in that area at the time, albeit not in the construction industry. As soon as I heard the news of what happened that day, I called him on his mobile to make sure he wasn't affected. Needless to say, when he answered his phone and wasn't in the area of the crash when it happened, I breathed a big sigh of relief

    • @MrPwnageMachine
      @MrPwnageMachine 6 місяців тому +13

      I was on a site just around the corner. I think the crane operator had stopped for coffee before starting his shift which kept him out of harms way!

    • @AxionSmurf
      @AxionSmurf 6 місяців тому

      My dad also worked there and he told me to tell youtube so I'd get lots of likes

    • @SiVlog1989
      @SiVlog1989 6 місяців тому +3

      @AxionSmurf if you want to take the mick, that's fine, but it doesn't take away what I experienced

    • @AxionSmurf
      @AxionSmurf 6 місяців тому

      And then everyone clapped @@SiVlog1989

  • @TheNightmareAmpersand
    @TheNightmareAmpersand 6 місяців тому +39

    Nowhere near the same situation but this tangentially reminded me of that f18 that crashed into the housing area in Virginia Beach back in 2012. No casualties with that one, thank goodness. I live in an area with a high amount of commercial and military aircraft so seeing something like this makes me realize how amazing it is that things like this don’t happen more often and how devastating it can be when it does.

    • @betrun73
      @betrun73 6 місяців тому +3

      I lived in VB at the time, that crash was absolutely bonkers. Nobody was home at the time which in and of itself is insane. But on top of that, both Pilots were able to eject safely, and also landed near the plane in the same Elderly Community. The old folks there had helped make sure they were doing okay before first responders arrived.
      Lived in the Hampton Roads area for over 20 years, and that was the first time something like that had happened. Which given how low they fly out of NAS Ocean, I'm very surprised. I used to live a mile from the base and you could WAVE to the Pilots sometimes as they flew by. Noise so loud your windows vibrate and shit falls off shelves.

    • @TheNightmareAmpersand
      @TheNightmareAmpersand 6 місяців тому +2

      @@betrun73 Not to mention all the flights from Langley AFB, training at Eustis and CG TRACEN Yorktown, plus two commercial airports in close proximity…yeah, we’re definitely lucky.

    • @Darkfyyre
      @Darkfyyre 6 місяців тому +1

      air travel is the safest form of transportation because of the potential for very, very tragic results in the case of things going wrong. over the course of its development, the air industry has gone to great pains to continually improve its operation at every level, from the design and makeup of the planes themselves, to the quality of pilot training, to the procedures in place that guide flights safely through the skies. regulations are written in blood, sadly, but the silver lining is the fact that we are, for the most part, always striving to never repeat a disaster again. the primary thing standing in the way of the best practices is money and greed. that's a problem we may never be able to solve, unfortunately, so the best we can hope for is that every other measure put in place to safeguard flights will act as a safety net to prevent greed from taking down more flights. but this is why, in spite of the sheer volume of flights taking place in high traffic areas, we don't see these types of incidents frequently, if at all. of course, it makes every tragedy cut ever deeper, but we can perhaps find solace in the knowledge that the experts will do all in their power to make sure it never happens again.

    • @JoshuaTootell
      @JoshuaTootell 6 місяців тому

      I don't remember any flight ops at TRACEN Yorktown. Engineering and Weapons training primarily ​@@TheNightmareAmpersand

  • @chrislaing7153
    @chrislaing7153 6 місяців тому +7

    I remember that day. That winter, I was doing work in Swindon with the same construction company that were leading the build of St Georges Tower.. I had a student working with me who took a call mid-morning and turned white as a sheet. It turned out the call was from one of his fellow students that was working three floors from the top of Georges tower when the helicopter struck.

  • @charlotteinnocent8752
    @charlotteinnocent8752 6 місяців тому +26

    It might have been a familiarity issue too, where the pilot felt too overconfident in an area he was used to flying in so often. Poor guy.

    • @BrilliantDesignOnline
      @BrilliantDesignOnline 6 місяців тому +3

      and pedestrian.

    • @tedthesailor172
      @tedthesailor172 6 місяців тому +1

      @@BrilliantDesignOnline And passengers...

    • @KoboldPip
      @KoboldPip 5 місяців тому +2

      It's easy even for experts to just go on mental 'autopilot' (no pun intended) when driving or flying a route you've done hundreds of times. I find myself doing it in my car during the commute, you just stop thinking about external hazards until they're right in front of you.

  • @andrewthompsonuk1
    @andrewthompsonuk1 6 місяців тому +9

    My train into Waterloo was delayed because of this. We could see smoke from the road area. It was too foggy to see the crane damage.

  • @sonorioftrill
    @sonorioftrill 6 місяців тому +15

    I definitely don’t envy any pilot that has to fly a rotorcraft solo in downtown London. Very busy airspace, lots of tall buildings and spires, plus all the normal single pilot the task loading of managing radios, navigation, other aircraft, the airspace, and of course flying the aircraft itself.
    As seen here, unfortunately all it can take is a few seconds of disorientation and that’s it.

    • @Steeyuv
      @Steeyuv 6 місяців тому

      You got that exactly right.

    • @alisonwilson9749
      @alisonwilson9749 6 місяців тому +1

      The solution is to ban all but emergency helicopter flights in central London's airspace.

  • @aimeedean1
    @aimeedean1 6 місяців тому +28

    I do remember this quite well. Barnes had flown as eye in the sky for the Olympic Games when I worked there in 2012. He did manage to avoid the railway bridge and a train on it at the time which was at least one positive to take away from this tragic accident. Unfortunately helicopter accidents are rarely survivable from my watching of these type of videos.

    • @USAFraimius
      @USAFraimius 6 місяців тому +3

      It varies. Helicopter crashes are sometimes at low airspeed (energy). These can be easily survivable. That said any midair or tower collision is likely to be fatal, as the rotors are usually destroyed.

    • @ricbarker4829
      @ricbarker4829 6 місяців тому

      He didn't "manage to avoid" anything. It was just pure luck.

    • @aimeedean1
      @aimeedean1 6 місяців тому

      @@ricbarker4829 Oh dear is this one of those cases of you assuming I care about your views or is this because a female dared to comment on this channel? I do know far more than the average joe on this particular topic as a very close friend was less than half a mile away on that road when it happened. So jog on Ric.

    • @LadyBeyondTheWall
      @LadyBeyondTheWall 6 місяців тому +3

      @@aimeedean1 Wait I'm confused, what did their comment have anything to do with you being a woman? I mean, all they did was give their opinion that the pilot didn't "manage to avoid" something and that rather, they believe it was luck. It'd be like seeing their response and saying "are you arguing with me because I'm black?!" lol They said nothing about our gender at all..

    • @aimeedean1
      @aimeedean1 6 місяців тому +1

      @@LadyBeyondTheWall Why are you trying to make this about you?

  • @jbeckley6849
    @jbeckley6849 6 місяців тому +34

    Think the craine permit agency is also to blame by not requiring the crane to have air warning lights during low light conditions such as fog.

    • @alisonwilson9749
      @alisonwilson9749 6 місяців тому +1

      They obeyed the rules. It seems less excusable to me to fly in conditions in which you can't see clearly.

  • @kalifogg6610
    @kalifogg6610 6 місяців тому +4

    Right now it’s a foggy day and some AHs are driving around without their headlights on.
    Without their headlights on they’re invisible until the seemingly appear out of nowhere.
    We had a car driving without their headlights on almost hit us because we couldn’t see them and made a left turn because we thought it was safe to do so.

    • @KiwiCatherineJemma
      @KiwiCatherineJemma 6 місяців тому

      There are 3 reasons for not having headlamps on during heavy fog. 1 ... Headlight switch is broken. 2... Driver is idiot and think's they're actually saving money on their home electric bill and 3.. Some cars have AUTO headlamps which turn on at night, but the high reflected light level of Fog during day-time, means the auto lamps may not come on. Decades ago Britain changed the law so if your windscreen wipers are on, your headlights must be on. Soon after , my uncle forgot to switch them off when he parked and ran his battery flat !

  • @laratheplanespotter
    @laratheplanespotter 6 місяців тому +6

    Woah. I saw this happen 😳. I was on a train to Waterloo going past it. It was pretty scary. RIP to those who died 😢

  • @keith800
    @keith800 6 місяців тому +4

    I remember this and the conversations afterwards about minimum flying Hight requirements as well as the growing number of helicopters used for pleasure and commercial use in and around London

  • @trickydicky2908
    @trickydicky2908 6 місяців тому +2

    MI6 headquarters looks straight out of Joseph Stalin's 'Architectural Digest'.

  • @debbieellett9093
    @debbieellett9093 6 місяців тому +6

    Wow, I never heard of this one. Hindsight is truly 20\20. Those lights on the crane should have been on any time visibility was low. Can't imagine what went through the brains of those two souls.🙁🙏

  • @fyrman9092
    @fyrman9092 6 місяців тому +5

    Flying a helicopter in IMC conditions is often deadly. Kobe Bryant found that out. It's up to the pilot to make that risk assessment for marginal conditions.

  • @Iowa599
    @Iowa599 6 місяців тому +29

    This is why the idea of flying cars (inspired by drones) is stupid. These people who think flying cars are the answer to traffic congestion are the same people who would run into shit.

    • @JIMJAMSC
      @JIMJAMSC 6 місяців тому +3

      As long as there are lawyers there will probably NEVER be flying cars on a large scale. In the US every day we are bombarded with " Have you been in a accident? CALL 1800 SUE type commercials. Can you imagine the lawsuits?

    • @blakewhite3131
      @blakewhite3131 6 місяців тому +1

      The concept feels similar to 3d chess, as someone who's never played it. You're just adding more dimensions and layers, not actually solving anything. It overcomplicates things, and roads/flying paths would still be necessary so

    • @luipaardprint
      @luipaardprint 6 місяців тому +2

      Can you imagine running out of fuel while stuck in traffic in your flying car 😂

    • @Iowa599
      @Iowa599 6 місяців тому +1

      I guess everything could be AI driven, possibly without human override possible, if airborne traffic was real…
      I hope I never see that!

    • @oldschoolman1444
      @oldschoolman1444 6 місяців тому +1

      Yup! They would be dropping out of the sky like flies.

  • @Idrinklight44
    @Idrinklight44 6 місяців тому +3

    Flew around the US doing construction lifting with an old S-58, no other job like it!!!!

  • @M3PH11
    @M3PH11 6 місяців тому +3

    3:34 notice to airmen or NOTAM is not just a notice of things not to crash into but they can advise of abnormal flight maneuvers around airbases or inactive periods for airfields aswell as many other things.

  • @JR-gp2zk
    @JR-gp2zk 6 місяців тому +5

    If you are looking for other disaster ideas, look at the Senator John Heinz plane/helicopter collision.

  • @shortking-vp9vv
    @shortking-vp9vv 6 місяців тому +1

    Cold and wet. Boy howdy I feel you. East TN here and this is a mild, miserable winter.

  • @EvanEdwards
    @EvanEdwards 6 місяців тому +3

    The best caption in news history may be on footage of a crane operator in Nashville who was trapped in their highrise crane cab during a storm that unleashed a tornado through Nashville. It reads, "Editor's note: This video includes the kind of graphic language that many adults would use if they were stuck in a crane with a tornado approaching."
    We had a bunch more today. Spent some time in the basement with a bunch of friends who came over this evening.

    • @katiekane5247
      @katiekane5247 6 місяців тому

      Hope you're okay, this is manipulated weather 😡

  • @simonbroberg969
    @simonbroberg969 6 місяців тому +10

    Well done John, you found one that we knew very little about again. Last few have been done to death many times, Last one even Mentor Pilot did and did well. Very few chopper crashes I have seen. Not that I really went out of my way looking for them, just know not found their way down my feed. This comment comes from a very sold slightly misty part of Oxford UK

    • @RoadkillbunnyUK
      @RoadkillbunnyUK 6 місяців тому

      I remember this one happening and it being all over the news for about two days and then it just seemed to disappear from the collective consciousness and I have never heard anything since.
      I was kind of excited to find out more about it and the results of the investigation. Really appreciate it 😁
      This comment comes from a clear dry and chilly day in a part of Oxford, UK! (Hey fellow Oxfordian!)

  • @Jolis_Parsec
    @Jolis_Parsec 6 місяців тому +4

    As much as I want to make a quip about James Bond since this took place near the MI-6 building, I’ll behave myself out of respect for the victims and their families as well as Mister John who’s gracious enough to research and share these stories with us to begin with.

  • @clarkjanes3094
    @clarkjanes3094 6 місяців тому +5

    Nicely drawn helicopter!

  • @paulyiustravelogue
    @paulyiustravelogue 6 місяців тому +1

    One reason I love your channel is that you talk about places in or around London often enough, and in most cases I am fairly familiar with them, like those places mentioned today.

  • @esteemedmortal5917
    @esteemedmortal5917 6 місяців тому +4

    My cat watched the helicopter very intently as it was moving around the map 😂

  • @Jimmy-B-
    @Jimmy-B- 4 місяці тому +1

    My mum used to work with Matt (the casualty) in a T Shirt factory in Morden. He got to work early that day. He was a nice man apparently. Remembered everyone’s birthday at work. Don’t see that often.

  • @ihartcrackers
    @ihartcrackers 6 місяців тому +1

    Great work on your ambient album as well as the stellar videos

  • @BadgerBadgerBadger28
    @BadgerBadgerBadger28 6 місяців тому +2

    I remember the crane op was only late for work once on that job and it was that day

  • @everyusernameistakenomfg
    @everyusernameistakenomfg 6 місяців тому +6

    thank you for the video, and have a good day today too as well Mr Plainly Difficult

  • @CarolineFord1
    @CarolineFord1 6 місяців тому +3

    I remember working at St Thomas' Hospital and you could see the Vauxhall tower in the distance. A patient was reminded of the helicopter crash and was keen to talk about it.

  • @dcviper985
    @dcviper985 6 місяців тому +2

    Pilots call completion bias “get-there-itis”. It’s the same thing that took down Kobe Bryant’s helicopter.

  • @MikeN-cs8qe
    @MikeN-cs8qe 6 місяців тому

    Love the addition of the soundtrack! Very nice!

  • @MrChopsticktech
    @MrChopsticktech 6 місяців тому

    Glad to see the foam finger pointer is back!!

  • @TomKappeln
    @TomKappeln 6 місяців тому +3

    WOW ! This intro was LOUD ! ufffff

  • @damiensadventure
    @damiensadventure 6 місяців тому

    Brrr cold an wet in the U.K. same here in Portland, OR, USA. I can definitely relate!
    Excellent video John!
    See you next week!

  • @CiParker
    @CiParker 6 місяців тому

    Just before watching this I watched a documentary about a woman who allegedly killed some people...with mushrooms. Boy I love when videos are unconnectedly connected!

  • @mistyblues6762
    @mistyblues6762 6 місяців тому

    Thanks for another interesting video!

  • @moosifer3321
    @moosifer3321 6 місяців тому

    Your theory makes sense - Never saw the incedent, saw the aftermath, for days, Visually, avoiding the scene, keep on Trucking.

  • @Archangelm127
    @Archangelm127 6 місяців тому

    I didn't know the word for it, but I recently experienced 'completion bias' for myself in a rather visceral way. (Everything turned out fine, but still.) Knowing it's a documented phenomenon just made a few things snap into place in my head. So thanks! :)

  • @gwendolynross1674
    @gwendolynross1674 6 місяців тому

    Good morning everyone, morning John 😊

  • @urchinlookinmf
    @urchinlookinmf 6 місяців тому

    “THE DISASTER” *funky music playing in the background*

  • @grapeshot
    @grapeshot 6 місяців тому +32

    I was once told airplanes fixed winged were designed to fly. I mean, they look like birds. Helicopters look like some fever dream.

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  6 місяців тому +8

      I agree!!

    • @daviddavidson2357
      @daviddavidson2357 6 місяців тому +12

      Helicopters just have rotating wings.
      One bonus is that if the engine fails you can still pull off a safe landing by putting the helicopter into autorotation.

    • @jhoughjr1
      @jhoughjr1 6 місяців тому +5

      Helicopters are aerodynamically safer than any fixed wing aircraft

    • @Kalvinjj
      @Kalvinjj 6 місяців тому +3

      @@daviddavidson2357 Well, fixed wings also glide, the issue is when it fails close to ground.

    • @TheInsultInvestor
      @TheInsultInvestor 6 місяців тому

      this is basically a myth. "autorotation' means using the small bit of inertia to hope you have enough time to glide down like a childs toy. Putting it in nuetral is not some grand trick and you better hope theres no problem with the tailshaft timing etc. Go fool someone else. @@daviddavidson2357

  • @itsjohndell
    @itsjohndell 6 місяців тому

    We call it getthereitis. Happy Holidays John!

  • @davidrenton
    @davidrenton 5 місяців тому +1

    what always got me about was the poor guy on the ground, probaly going to work, with all the normal worries , then out of nowhere , one of the most unlikely incidents to occur , being killed by a falling helicopter

  • @kellyfinleybrown9313
    @kellyfinleybrown9313 6 місяців тому +1

    Thank you.❤❤

  • @brigidsingleton1596
    @brigidsingleton1596 6 місяців тому +3

    I remember seeing this on the TV News at the time... Hard to believe such a crash could happen in London, fog or no fog. Much like the Glasgow Clutha helecopter crash into a pub. Hindsight is a marvellous thing but after such accidents, surely clear lighting which signifies the presence of the height of construction cranes etc ought to be made visible as par for the course let alone flights which should be routed far from such congested areas...😳😢

    • @alisonwilson9749
      @alisonwilson9749 6 місяців тому +2

      Or ban flying over cities in fog....(except emergency services, of course, who may have to)

  • @WendysCove
    @WendysCove 6 місяців тому +3

    Hope yr weather improves. Brilliant well researched.

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  6 місяців тому

      Thank you!!

    • @galdavonalgerri2101
      @galdavonalgerri2101 6 місяців тому +1

      „cold and wet“ - same here in northern Germany. Snow is melting. Now there's muddy weather and if your shoes aren't good enough you'll get wet feet.

  • @classicalricky
    @classicalricky 6 місяців тому

    Love the outro music

  • @anthonydefreitas6006
    @anthonydefreitas6006 6 місяців тому +2

    I was working on that site and luckily had the day off!

  • @Sebastian-tl3kf
    @Sebastian-tl3kf 6 місяців тому

    I remember walking to school in Wandsworth at the time, very foggy day.

  • @mfx1
    @mfx1 6 місяців тому +1

    You missed the fact that the crane driver was late for work that day otherwise he'd have been in the crane cab at the time.

  • @fredericjuliard4261
    @fredericjuliard4261 6 місяців тому +1

    Merci.

  • @Noosa21
    @Noosa21 6 місяців тому +2

    Current story in Sydney Australia worth checking out is the Rozelle Interchange - a disaster of planning for a very expensive tunnell system gone wrong on many fronts. currently the talk of the town or shall I say ire of Sydeysiders.

  • @castletownwhippets
    @castletownwhippets 6 місяців тому +2

    Wasn't the crane operator late that morning..his car door was frozen and made him late

  • @Saltalotl
    @Saltalotl 6 місяців тому +28

    Excellent video! Helicopters are such strange designs. Just as a note, could you balance the intro music a bit in your next vids, it was /really/ loud compared to the narration.

    • @rayoflight62
      @rayoflight62 6 місяців тому +3

      The trumpet jingle oversaturate the output. Just use some dynamic compression ti equalise the audio level during the transition from the intro to the speech.
      Thank you John, for the great video.
      Greetings,
      Anthony

  • @MisakaMikotoDesu
    @MisakaMikotoDesu 6 місяців тому +7

    There were no procedure changes? What

    • @revenevan11
      @revenevan11 6 місяців тому +2

      I know right!?!
      They should've learned from this to have the crane's hazard lights on all the time like in many countries, or at least during foggy conditions!

  • @Screamblade_
    @Screamblade_ 6 місяців тому +4

    Hope you are going well this time of the week. Keep being awesome

  • @beerandboats1
    @beerandboats1 6 місяців тому

    We have to get you to 1 million subscribers

  • @jonathandevries2828
    @jonathandevries2828 6 місяців тому +1

    Nice Mr. Music! i love mushrooms!

  • @Zeydarchist
    @Zeydarchist 6 місяців тому +8

    I gotta say, after listening to the new album, I'm REALLY vibing with it.
    Glad to hear it in the new videos!! ❤

    • @PlainlyDifficult
      @PlainlyDifficult  6 місяців тому +2

      Yay, thank you! I really appreciate that!!

    • @xairosaenz2073
      @xairosaenz2073 6 місяців тому

      What new album?

    • @blakewhite3131
      @blakewhite3131 6 місяців тому

      ​@@xairosaenz2073John's music, i assume :)

    • @maxwalker786
      @maxwalker786 6 місяців тому

      ​@@PlainlyDifficult
      Hey John, what's with the choice to put a 90s-chillout style track with this story? Haven't checked your album but I dunno if it's all like this
      Doesn't really fit IMO, hearing about people getting killed and injured in the disaster segment to lift-style music was a bit of a tonal clash. Normally it feels a bit less upbeat and more respectful? Dunno, I'll check out your album and see if there are other moods to it

  • @craigwatt1303
    @craigwatt1303 6 місяців тому

    you should cover the clutha bar crash also. its a simeler situation that happened in glasgow in 2013

  • @Iffy350
    @Iffy350 6 місяців тому +5

    They really need to invent a helicopter hud with building mapping.

    • @JIMJAMSC
      @JIMJAMSC 6 місяців тому +1

      We have it.

    • @Iffy350
      @Iffy350 6 місяців тому +1

      But not fully implemented.

    • @railgap
      @railgap 6 місяців тому +1

      working on it. a HUD is trivial. Getting data to feed to it is the hard part. IR LIDAR looks promising.

  • @misseselise3864
    @misseselise3864 6 місяців тому +1

    i feel like i can’t truly grasp the severity of situations like this bc the tallest building i’ve ever been in was like six stories. my brain just cannot process the idea of a building being 50 stories tall

    • @KiwiCatherineJemma
      @KiwiCatherineJemma 6 місяців тому

      Not sure how high up in a building I've ever been maximum, but certainly when I have been, about 6 stories up, it's startin' t' give me the HeeBee GeeBees feelings already. I'm a flatlander, through and through, used to ground floor, single storey living. Originally from Christchurch New ZEaland and although I lived in Perth Western Australia for a few years, but the first time I visited Sydney Australia and saw some of their tallest buildings, right in the inner city, I remember thinkin' "well I hope I'm NOT here, next time there's a decent Earthquake !"

  • @CadenSteele
    @CadenSteele 6 місяців тому +9

    Any time there’s mist, it always seems that something has to go wrong, same for fog

    • @richardwillson101
      @richardwillson101 6 місяців тому

      😂 clearly you don't live somewhere that has mist/fog 90% of days.

    • @CadenSteele
      @CadenSteele 5 місяців тому +1

      @@richardwillson101 I live in Georgia, so that is very true, we have most or fog maybe 2 times a year where I live

  • @tehbonehead
    @tehbonehead 6 місяців тому +13

    You would think that a country perpetually covered in clouds or fog (or both) would have better failsafes in place for such conditions...

    • @alisonwilson9749
      @alisonwilson9749 6 місяців тому +1

      We should. We should ban non-emergency flying over cities, even if only in fog. But money.....

    • @nicolad8822
      @nicolad8822 4 місяці тому

      Except it isn’t.

    • @tehbonehead
      @tehbonehead 4 місяці тому

      @@nicolad8822 lol. So you show up late to parties to be no fun?

  • @theresehopkins1581
    @theresehopkins1581 4 місяці тому

    Another excellent video!!! ❤😊🎉 Thank you!! ❤😊... So sad that the helicopter didn't make it!! 😢🙏💔💔... Just read in the comments that the crane operator overslept for the first time in years... he got there just as the helicopter crashed... 🙏💔💔.... As my mother would say... "sometimes it's just your time".... prayers to the families and all involved... 🙏💔💔😢

  • @jamessimms415
    @jamessimms415 6 місяців тому +2

    There are old pilots, & bold pilots; but no old, bold pilots

  • @GMxTekhe
    @GMxTekhe 6 місяців тому +1

    I remember I was living and working in London when this happened! First I knew about it was my dad (who was in Yorkshire) called me, and asked if I was okay - I was entirely oblivious! Just happily eating my croissant for breakfast 😂

  • @dimebagdave77
    @dimebagdave77 6 місяців тому +1

    Manythnx Plainly Difficult 🤘

  • @jayuu3322
    @jayuu3322 6 місяців тому

    That outro though 😍 11:30

  • @andreasu.3546
    @andreasu.3546 6 місяців тому +1

    I must be immune to completion bias. At least I am perfectly able to procrastinate any task at any time, task started or otherwise.

  • @luannnelson547
    @luannnelson547 6 місяців тому

    I happened to be in London that day and was supposed to be meeting a friend at Vauxhall Station to go to an event at her friend’s house nearby. What a mess it was. We ended up meeting at the station just before it and walked. I remember walking past these burned cars; there was a coffeeshop either in or adjacent to Vauxhall station, and it was crammed full of police officers and other emergency workers.

  • @xcab66
    @xcab66 6 місяців тому +1

    God damn! You played that excellent outro tune again! I love it!!

  • @tonyhilliarduk
    @tonyhilliarduk 4 місяці тому

    I passed by on my train into Waterloo moments before this happened. Still think about it sometimes on my commute.

  • @ethanlittle776
    @ethanlittle776 6 місяців тому

    I remember this happening but always thought it was in east London for some reason

  • @TheMelamia
    @TheMelamia 6 місяців тому

    I was living in London when this happened. We had just strolled by the crane the day prior. 😢

  • @syrthdr09sybr34
    @syrthdr09sybr34 6 місяців тому +21

    Of course they will blame it all on the guy who can't defend himself. This seems to happen a lot in aviation.

    • @harrysmbdgs
      @harrysmbdgs 6 місяців тому +5

      Number one trick in the Boeing playbook!

    • @ianmacfarlane1241
      @ianmacfarlane1241 6 місяців тому +2

      I think aviation accident reports have to apportion blame somewhere, and then they'll eliminate everything that didn't cause the crash - mechanical issues, the heliport, the crane etc.
      Then they'll be left with the pilot and the weather.
      There's supposed to be no malicious intentions when blaming a person - it's just meant to be about providing an answer.
      Mentourpilot explains this extremely well - even when blaming the pilot, it's not meant to be a personal attack.

    • @syrthdr09sybr34
      @syrthdr09sybr34 6 місяців тому +3

      @@ianmacfarlane1241 I am subscribed to mentour pilot, but of course he will be a little biased.
      I just don't think that if an accident was caused by institutional shortcomings they would risk losing public trust by offering full disclosure to the public. It's easier and cheaper to blame it on pilot error.
      Just think about how many times the contents of the black box are deemed unrecoverable. Of course we have no choice but to believe them.

    • @JesmondBeeBee
      @JesmondBeeBee 6 місяців тому +4

      Aren't most vehicle accidents caused by the person operating the vehicle? Pilots are the most highly trained of all vehicle operators, but they're also in the most unforgiving of environments, moving very fast, with little time to react and correct.

    • @syrthdr09sybr34
      @syrthdr09sybr34 6 місяців тому

      @@JesmondBeeBee Not always.

  • @grahambird1570
    @grahambird1570 4 місяці тому +1

    Bad Omen , , , I was walking away from the Building when I actually heard it happening, couldnt believe my ears !

  • @kansaman1
    @kansaman1 6 місяців тому

    You need to do a video on the 1986 Cleveland balloon disaster!!!!

  • @thedamntrain3467
    @thedamntrain3467 6 місяців тому +1

    I think this pilot might have been someone who worked on the bond films actually if I remember correctly. Bond and helicopters are just cursed.

  • @paranormalsoulz
    @paranormalsoulz 6 місяців тому

    Can you PLEASE do a video on the washington bridge closure in Rhode Island, USA. Theres a lot of pictures and stuff showing what was wrong in the inspection and why they had to emergency shut it down, but from an outside perspective with little knowledge it just looks basically like “everything rusted while we were working on it.”

  • @GanjaScotty
    @GanjaScotty 6 місяців тому

    Foggy outside my apartment the last few days, there’s a construction site across the street with a crane, which is fully decked with xmas lights and the company logo..
    Maybe they should be lit like this year ‘round. 😅

  • @DaimonWalker
    @DaimonWalker 6 місяців тому +4

    I went to work early on the morning of this accident. I used to cycle to work. I'd left a little earlier this morning. If I had gone at my normal time I'd have been wearing that helicopter. True story. I lived in Clapham Junction and worked opposite St. Thomas' hospital.