Clutha Crash Report 'Raises More Questions Than It Answers'
The son of a man who was killed when a police helicopter crashed through the roof of a Glasgow pub has said the final air accident report into the cause of the crash raises more questions than it answers.
John McGarrigle Jnr, whose father John was one of 10 people killed in the tragedy at The Clutha pub on November 29 2013, was amongst a group of families who gathered at Glasgow's Marriott hotel tonight to hear the findings of the final Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) report.
The families have been told to keep the findings confidential until the report's official release on Friday, and until all of the families involved have scrutinised the findings.
But speaking on the steps of the Marriott, Mr McGarrigle said its findings have left him angry.
All tonight has done for me is raise loads more questions,'' he said.
My head is scrambled, I'm that angry.
Flight data recorders should be installed in every passenger carrying aircraft - simple as. If we had that, we would know a lot more.
We wouldn't know the full cause, but we would know half of the reasons at least and we would have learned from it.''
He said he did not get answers about the cause of the crash.
It's just question upon question upon question,'' he said.
AAIB said in an interim report published last year that both engines on the aircraft failed, but the cause was not outlined.
The report said the engines had ''flamed out'' before the helicopter crashed in to the packed bar at 10.22pm, killing the pilot and two police constables on board as well as seven people in the pub.
The AAIB is understood to be holding meetings with those affected by the tragedy this week to discuss the findings in its final report ahead of its public release.
Mr McGarrigle added: I'm furious. I came here very optimistic, very hopeful knowing that the AAIB are very impartial but I just feel really let down by those guys because these are the people that we came here tonight to get answers off of and we never got any answers.
I know what caused the crash but I cannot say.'' He said the public will understand why he is so angry when the report is published on Friday, and then the matter will be in the hands of the lawyers.
Mr McGarrigle also said the report does not apportion blame to anyone, and does not bring him closer to justice.
Anne-Marie Kennedy, who was working behind the bar and was trapped in the wreckage, said: It's shown me that they should have black boxes for defo, it's shown me the need for other regulation, but other than that nothing.
Until I speak to my legal team I can only speculate.
I'm satisfied with the way the night went. I believe that AAIB has done everything in their power.
The guy explained the investigation, the complexity and the length of time. They did all they could.''
Jim Morris, partner at Irwin Mitchell solicitors and an expert in aviation law, said: Unfortunately, in my view, due to the lack of requirement to fit a black box flight data recorder, we now have almost more unanswered questions.
The AAIB have spent almost two years working extremely hard in the absence of this crucial piece of real time evidence to piece together what happened.
Tonight, they have provided these victims with a copy of the final accident report that we believe will be published on Friday.
This is a 102-page accident report which is very detailed and goes into great detail on human factors and technical factors in terms of trying to identify what caused this accident.
But it is clear from this report that the lack of a flight data recorder has hampered this investigation, and for that reason there are an awful lot of unanswered questions about this accident.
It is not absolutely clear why the fuel did not reach these engines.
The report goes into significant detail in its analysis but it is clear from what is said in the report that they can't answer all the questions on the full chain of events to determine why the fuel did not reach these engines.
There are a number of safety recommendations in the report.
We certainly hope that these safety recommendations and what has been identified in this report will lead to improvements in flight safety.
We hope it will ensure that manufacturers, operators, and the authorities take all possible measures to prevent this type of tragedy from happening again.
I can confirm that human factors we examined in detail, but there are a lot of unanswered questions in relation to the human factors as well.''
He added: The legal aspect is a separate issue to the accident report.
The law applicable is different depending on who the defendant is.
The primary cause of action is against the operator of this helicopter, and for ground victims that is covered under the Civil Aviation Act 1982.
Under that act, the operator is strictly liable to compensate the victims so on behalf of our clients we don't have to prove negligence.''
Ian O'Prey, whose son Mark died in the bar said The pilot wasn't at fault, that's for certain.
There were switches left on, or off, and the engine had fuel starvation, that's basically it.''
He said there was no explanation why. We don't know, we honestly don't know,'' he said.
A second group of families of those killed and injured in the Clutha helicopter crash are still to receive the final report on its causes. They were told to keep the contents of the report confidential as more families have been invited to a briefing this morning.
But they could not contain their anger at the contents of the report, which they felt raises more questions than it answers.