An engineer warned bosses at the firm which operated the helicopter that crashed into the Clutha helicopter inquiry hears no fuel was found in one tank of doomed chopper bar that there was an “accident waiting to happen” – a day before the tragedy.
Paul Booth raised his concerns in a shift handover note to management, the inquiry into the accident heard.
Booth worked for Bond Air Services, the operators of the police helicopter that crashed into the Glasgow pub in November 2013.
Clutha helicopter crash inquiry hears pilot was 'stickler for procedure'
His handover read: “I am extremely concerned at the way we are having to carry out in-depth maintenance on our aircraft at Glasgow. It is an accident waiting to happen.”
Booth told the inquiry yesterday that he had written this at the end of a busy shift and had not expected anything like the crash to happen.
The inquiry also heard that a pilot had reported fuel fluctuations in the aircraft in the days before the crash.
Clutha helicopter inquiry hears no fuel was found in one tank of doomed chopper
The issue was recorded in a diary that supervisors at the Glasgow heliport handed over to each other but was not reported on any technical log.
The incident with the fuel sensor was reported on November 24, 2013. The inquiry heard that if it had been entered into the defects log, it would have had to be replaced by November 27.
But by the time of the crash on November 29, the part had still not been replaced.
Pilot David Traill, 51, PC Tony Collins, 43, and PC Kirsty Nelis, 36, died in the crash along with seven customers who were in the Stockwell Street bar.
They were Gary Arthur, 48, Joe Cusker, 59, Colin Gibson, 33, Robert Jenkins, 61, John McGarrigle, 58, Samuel McGhee, 56, and Mark O’Prey, 44.
The inquiry continues.
