http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-g ... t-25163045

Update - 3 reported dead - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-25165894
I wonder if the three fatalities were the people in the helicopter. It's just as well the 'copter didn't start a fire when it crashed.

I've drunk in that pub before and 10:30pm on a Friday it would have been absolutely heaving with people, especially with a live band on.

I am surprised that there are no black boxes in helicopters.

There are in commercial ones with passengers. I know the ones we use offshore have them.

Apparently (according to BBC news) they're only required to have flight recorders if they're above a certain weight and this one wasn't. Theory seems to be emerging that the copter was in trouble and tried to land on the pub roof, since it was flat. The roof couldn't support the weight and collapsed.

They reckon they can get some data out of the flight electronics that might give them some clues, but it's hit and miss.

That would be completely irresponsible of the pilot if it's true. He knows the weight of his chopper and should know it's too much for a normal roof.

Agreed, but if he had lost power and was auto-rotating, he might not have had any choice. It might depend if the rotor diameter would be too wide to land in the street, for example.

Apparently the pilot had over 10 years RAF chopper experience and quite a few hours in the police copter too. He wasn't a mug. I can only assume he landed there because that was the only place it looked like he could.

I wonder if there's any recorded radio talk, if they declared an emergency. The police spokesman wouldn't say when asked.

It might have been possible to land on the edge of the roof, hoping the bulk of the weight will be transmitted straight down the walls.

While it might have been possible to land and the roof to sustain the weight in a normal landing, reports are that "it fell like a stone from the sky" so if that was the case I doubt it was a planned landing and therefore more of a crash landing. Time will tell though - could take up to a year to identify the cause according to the experts.

The fact that it was a crash landing that killed all on board means that it was less planned than it could have been.

Police choppers are a pain in the arse, buzzing around at all hours when I'm trying to sleep. They should all be banned.

It wasn't possible to land on the road next to the pub, nor on the large road junction few metres away, nor on the wide bridge across the junction, nor to ditch in the river.

I think the likelihood that the pilot was aiming for a brick wall a foot thick is a remote one