big problems in vauxhall
- Thread starter nick mercedes
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
OP
OP
nick mercedes
MB Enthusiast
Vauxhalls are the king of vans, none of the probelms you get with Vitos.
teddycatkin
Member
- Joined
- Dec 29, 2012
- Messages
- 38
- Location
- Cheese country
- Car
- w124 220te W123 230e W201 190e x 2 W107 500sl Astra 1.4 automatic
Bit foggy down there---all roads shut by the station too.
grober
MB Master
SportsCoupeRich
MB Enthusiast
I live pretty near the heliport on the chelsea side of the river (opposite). When dropping the missus off at work this morning in Parsons Green all the roads were backlogged. Not good news this - hopefully minimal casualties.
aficionado
Active Member
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2012
- Messages
- 124
- Car
- W204
hopefully there is not much casualties
renault12ts
MB Club Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2009
- Messages
- 16,671
- Car
- 2005 W215 CL500.
ashadam
Active Member
- Joined
- Nov 29, 2012
- Messages
- 222
- Location
- Central London
- Car
- CDI220 AMG Sport Plus Saloon Arrived 6th March 2013 Still Happy!
It is a total nightmare all the bridges getting really busy was surprised not more loss of life with the area it landed in.
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2008
- Messages
- 45,608
- Location
- London
- Car
- 2022 Hyundai IONIQ 5 RWD / 2016 Suzuki Vitara AWD
Very tragic. An aircraft crashing into densely populated area is indeed the ultimate nightmare scenario. And as a fire brigade spokesman said - it could have been much worse.
Even more so for the people on the ground who could not escape the falling debris and the fires.
From my (limited) knowledge of aviation though, rarely it is the case that a single factor is found to be the cause of a crash. In most cases it is a combination of several factors, or as some might put it, 'bad luck'.
In this case it is obviously not clear why the aircraft was flown into the (unlit?) crane, as some witnesses described.
There may have been a problem with the aircraft, it's instruments, the pilot may have been taken ill, or distracted by an unrelated fault, or it may be down to some inexplicable 'pilot error'.
However I think it is clear that flying into the crane is only part of the issue. I do not know how far away from the building the crane's arm extended, but it could not have been hundreds of feet. If the aircraft hit the crane, it was flying far to close to the building in the first place - well below any acceptable safety margins.
Had the crane not been there, it may have ended as a 'near miss' - with the pilot later describing at the Social Club how he narrowly missed this tower of a building that just popped out of the mist.
Very sad all around, for those who died, were injured, and their friends and families.
Even more so for the people on the ground who could not escape the falling debris and the fires.
From my (limited) knowledge of aviation though, rarely it is the case that a single factor is found to be the cause of a crash. In most cases it is a combination of several factors, or as some might put it, 'bad luck'.
In this case it is obviously not clear why the aircraft was flown into the (unlit?) crane, as some witnesses described.
There may have been a problem with the aircraft, it's instruments, the pilot may have been taken ill, or distracted by an unrelated fault, or it may be down to some inexplicable 'pilot error'.
However I think it is clear that flying into the crane is only part of the issue. I do not know how far away from the building the crane's arm extended, but it could not have been hundreds of feet. If the aircraft hit the crane, it was flying far to close to the building in the first place - well below any acceptable safety margins.
Had the crane not been there, it may have ended as a 'near miss' - with the pilot later describing at the Social Club how he narrowly missed this tower of a building that just popped out of the mist.
Very sad all around, for those who died, were injured, and their friends and families.
- Joined
- May 21, 2009
- Messages
- 6,114
- Location
- Planet Earth
- Car
- Polo GTi (and a travel pass for the train and subway)
Should a helicopter have been flying in these conditions ?
I thought they had to remain under cloud level or within a defined area of visibility unless military ...
I thought they had to remain under cloud level or within a defined area of visibility unless military ...
davidjpowell
MB Enthusiast
Whether they should have or not - (and I think I've read that it was diverting), when a pilot gets into it - he's going to have to move somewhere.
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2008
- Messages
- 45,608
- Location
- London
- Car
- 2022 Hyundai IONIQ 5 RWD / 2016 Suzuki Vitara AWD
Just to give some idea what the tower and the crane looked like... the images on the left were taken shortly after the crash and the poor visibility can be seen, the ones on the right were taken later in the day (from a different angle with another building partially blocking view of the tower).
Planes have crashed in out and out of Heathrow... it is never good but doesnt need to be complete armageddon. You can usually have a degree of control over a plane when something goes wrong. A Lockerbie impact is not the usual end.
Helicopters on the other hand are a little more knife edge - when it goes wrong it goes wrong big.
- Joined
- May 21, 2009
- Messages
- 6,114
- Location
- Planet Earth
- Car
- Polo GTi (and a travel pass for the train and subway)
I think we can all see that the crane was not much, if any, higher than the building and that should have been considered the minimum flight height for the helicopter.
I suspect that the pilot has had something tragic happen to him prior to the accident.
An accident, a tragic accident and we should all be thankful that so few people were killed and injured. It could have been so much worse.
My heart goes out to all who suffered as a result.
- Joined
- Jun 24, 2008
- Messages
- 45,608
- Location
- London
- Car
- 2022 Hyundai IONIQ 5 RWD / 2016 Suzuki Vitara AWD
grober
MB Master
Flight plan ----- to fly from Redhill, Surrey, to Elstree, Hertfordshire, hits bad weather with limited visibility -- with possible ceiling of about 100 feet --- Then divert to London heliport in Battersea in the centre of London where there are thousands of people and very tall buildings?? There may be good reasons but I would like to hear them ? London helicopter crash: Cameron announces review of flight rules | UK news | The Guardian
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2007
- Messages
- 12,859
- Location
- North Oxfordshire
- Car
- His - Denim Blue A220 AMG Line Premium / Hers - Obsidian Black R172 SLK55
^ Especially if flying VFR. Also, (particulary in the conditions of yesterday) a very real risk of icing.
