Clutha FAI: Pilot David Traill may have been 'dangerously misled'

Marcus Cook, senior inspector at the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) was questioned by Donald Findlay QC about the final moment of the G-SPAO helicopter.

Pilot David Traill, his two crew members and seven patrons of the Clutha were killed when the aircraft crashed through the roof of the bar.

Today, day three of the enquiry, the court heard one of the helicopter's engines flamed out with just 42 seconds until the second engine flamed out.

There were then only 10 seconds for Captain Traill to react before the aircraft fell into the Clutha.

Mr Findlay asked Mr Cook if the pilot would have thought he had three to four minutes from one engine on the helicopter flaming out due to fuel shortage and the second doing so.

Mr Cook said information in the maintenance manual would detail kilograms of fuel, rather than minutes.

He said: "The maintenance manual is incorrect. It would be three to four kilograms - hence about a minute."

Mr Cook said he did not know how the mistake occurred and the maintenance manual had since been changed.

Mr Findlay asked: "If the pilot Captain Traill knew about the gap and understood it to be three or four minutes, he had been badly misled?

"If he knew," Mr Cook replied.

"And dangerously misled," Mr Findlay added.

Mr Cook said: "Your words."

Mr Findlay asked: "Is there anything wrong with my words?"

"No," Mr Cook replied.

The AAIB expert stated the maintenance manual was for engineers, rather than pilots so it was "probably but maybe unlikely" the pilot was aware of the manual.

The inquiry heard on Tuesday that the helicopter was launched due to a false alarm about a person being hit by a train near Oatlands.

With crew members PC Kirsty Nelis and PC Tony Collins on board, it then flew to Dalkeith, Midlothian, before returning to the Central Belt.

It spent two minutes at a surveillance task over Bothwell before spending a further three minutes over Uddingston.

Mr Findlay asked Mr Cook if he would have "kept this task for another day" and returned to Glasgow, given fuel levels on board.

Mr Cook agreed that, had he been piloting the helicopter, he would not have attempted the additional journeys.

The helicopter then went on to Bargeddie, after Uddingston.

Mr Cook said, were he piloting the helicopter, he would have declined to carry on to Bargeddie and headed back.

But, he pointed out, this was all hypothesis.

The inquiry also heard the helicopter would have issued five low fuel warnings that would have alerted everyone on board to an issue with the aircraft.

Following an initial fuel warning, protocol dictates that the pilot should land within 10 minutes.

Mr Findlay asks if, given low fuel warnings are known to have gone off in the helicopter, is there evidence the pilot responded to the warnings.

Mr Cook says it is not possible to say.

Mr Findlay: "The obvious thing to prove it would have been if he had landed within 10 minutes."

Mr Cook said the first low fuel light would have come on when the pilot was around Bothwell, before the helicopter then went to Uddingston and Bargeddie.

Mr Findlay asked: "Why would anyone with the warnings and the knowledge of the amount of fuel on board then carry out an operation at Uddingston, let alone going on to Bargeddie, in that situation?

Mr Cook said: "I've absolutely no idea," adding that he would not have done so.

Captain Traill was heard to have been a highly experienced pilot, a Chinook Display Pilot with the RAF, an Instrument Rating Examiner on the Chinook and was rated as an "above average pilot".

Later in the flight, as the helicopter reached Glasgow City Centre, Mr Cook said there were indications the pilot attempted to have the helicopter auto-rotate to land with some degree of safety, but this did not work.

Mr Findlay asked Mr Cook how the crash happened.

He said: "People here have lost loved ones. They want you to help them. How did this happen?"

Mr Cook replied: "Unfortunately we can't come to a positive conclusion."

The purpose of the FAI is to determine the cause of the deaths, establish whether they could have been prevented and enable the sheriff to make recommendations that could prevent fatalities in similar circumstances.

More than 100 people were at the Clutha Vaults pub when the helicopter, returning to its base on the banks of the River Clyde, crashed through the roof.

Gary Arthur, 48; Joe Cusker, 59; Colin Gibson, 33; Robert Jenkins, 61; John McGarrigle, 57; Samuel McGhee, 56; and Mark O'Prey, 44, were all killed.

The inquiry, at Hampden Park in front of Sheriff Principal Craig Turnbull is expected to involve around three months of evidence spread over six calendar months this year.

It is now adjourned until Wednesday, April 17.