Emmerdale Bosses Defend Crash Plot

Hundreds of people have signed a petition calling for tonight's planned episode of Yorkshire soap Emmerdale to be scrapped.

The plotline - which involves a helicopter crash - has been compared with the disaster in 2013, when a police chopper hit a pub in Glasgow, killing ten people.

The petition calls for the soap's producer to "show some respect" to the victims. In a statement, a spokesperson for ITV said:

"ITV always considers carefully the content of its programming. The Helicopter crash circumstances are very different to any real life cases that we are aware of. The accident occurs as a consequence of Chrissie setting fire to her cheating husband's car which spreads to the scrapyard. Gas canisters are ignited and explode into the air striking the helicopter."

Part of the soap is filmed in Leeds.