A FATAL accident inquiry into the Clutha crash tragedy will last six months and include a simulation of the helicopter’s final moments. 

The first of three preliminary hearings was held yesterday at Hampden Park ahead of the start of the full FAI in April 2019.

Seven customers were killed along with three crew members when a helicopter smashed into the packed pub on November 29, 2013.

Attendees at the hearing included several Glasgow friends and relatives who lost loved ones in the tragedy.

Sheriff Principal Craig Turnbull said the inquiry will be “lengthy and complex”.

As proceedings began, the names of the victims were read out.

In his opening remarks, Sheriff Principal Turnbull said: “The names that were read are those of the 10 people who died as a consequence of the events of November 29, 2013, when a helicopter then carrying out operations on behalf of Police Scotland crashed into the Clutha Bar on Stockwell Street.”

Roddy Dunlop QC, representing the aeronautics company Airbus, said a simulation of the flight and crash has already been shown to the Crown.

He said this “graphic depiction of the flight” was compiled from data recovered after the incident.

Mr Dunlop said he hoped the simulation “will be of some assistance to your lordship and indeed to participants in understanding what was happening in the course of the fatal flight”.

Procurator fiscal depute Sean Smith QC said he was also looking into the feasibility of a building a 3D computer-generated interactive model of the helicopter.

He said: “It may assist the court so that one can see at a glance what’s being referred to.”
John McGarrigle Junior, 43, from Paisley, lost his father in the tragedy.

He wants to know exactly what happened to John senior that night and why he died.
“Since that day it’s been five years of silence,” he said outside the hearing on the steps of Hampden Park.

“All I want is closure and accountability, but I don’t expect much from the inquiry.”
John hopes the FAI will answer lingering questions about why his father was not rescued.

He added: “I found out in the the post-mortem that he was alive for 17.5 hours inside the pub and trapped for almost two days.

“This is the big thing for me.”

John described his dad, who was a writer from Castlemilk, as a “larger than life character”, and said he himself has lived through “hell” since the crash.

The other six people who died in the disaster were Mark O’Prey, Gary Arthur, Colin Gibson, Robert Jenkins, Samuel McGhee and Joe Cusker.

The helicopter crew who were killed in the crash were pilot David Traill, PC Tony Collins and PC Kirsty Nelis.