 It's the morning of the 16th of January 2013 and a construction site in London is all over the news. But it's not for the reason you might think, it's not a premature building failure or avoidable work site accident. It's actually an aviation disaster. A helicopter had become lost in the morning's mist and collided with a construction crane. The tragedy would highlight the potential risk for disaster in the capitals skies. My name is John and welcome to Plainly Difficult. Today we'll be having a look at the Vauxhall helicopter crash background. So our story will begin with the disaster site, which is here. The area around Vauxhall bridge and Vauxhall station. It's probably a place you have seen quite a few times without even really knowing it. And that's because of this building, the MI6 headquarters. The area in the 1990s would see an explosion in riverside developments as the cost of land would increase down the Thames in the centre of London. One such development was that of St George's Wharf. The construction was carried out in phases by developers St George, part of Berkeley Group Holdings, with blocks opening between 2001 and 2010. These properties were intended for the rich, but regardless, the development would be finished off with one massive tower right next to the nine-elms lane. The tower would take a little while to get the required planning permission, because of its proposed height, but in 2005 it got the thumbs up and was to be 181 meters or 594 feet tall, with 50 stories. Construction began in 2011 and the building started shooting towards the sky. By 2013, the tower was well on its way to a 2014 completion date, and surrounding the tower was scaffolding and a crane. The main tower of the crane was positioned next to the building and was braced to its structure at regular points. By January 2013, the crane was at a height of 563 feet. The crane had a jib that pivoted on the vertical plane. Were not in use, it would be parked at a minimum 65 degree angle, giving the tower a total height of 723 feet. The crane was required to be lit at night by its air navigation order, and this was done with red lights, both on its tower and jib. The ANO required the lighting to be of medium intensity, and that the obstacle would be lit at night only. This is because the skyline of London, which can be quite busy with helicopters, is littered with tall buildings and cranes, either building them or maintaining them. And in 2013, there would be around 20 tall cranes working along the central London skyline. You see, these tall buildings make navigation a little bit difficult, because helicopters aren't allowed to fly any closer than 500 feet to any structure. And along the Thames, some of these 500 feet exclusion zones get very close to one another. To help with navigation around London, a number of routes are predetermined. They are labelled as Hotel, then the route's number, say for example Hotel 4, which might come into our story a little bit later. The crane at St George's Wharf was subject to a thing called Notice to Airmen, these informed pilots of things to not crash into. And this particular one read, in the London Flight Information Region, an obstacle has been erected, affecting both instrument and visual traffic. Aerodrome and en route traffic is affected. The obstacle is from the surface up to 800 feet and is positioned within a one nautical mile radius. The obstacle will be in place from 1700 hours on the 7th of January 2013 to 2359 hours on the 15th of March 2013. It is a high rise jib crane, lit at night extending to 770 feet. So now we've laid down the groundwork, it's time to move on to the fatal flight in January 2013. But disaster. So it is 6.30 in the morning on the 16th of January 2013 and the pilot of GCRST has arrived at Redhill Aerodrome in preparation for a flight to Ellstree Aerodrome and the helicopter is an Augusta AW109. From Ellstree he planned to collect his passenger of Richard Allen Caring and take him and another passenger to the north of England. The helicopter had the call sign Rocket 2. The pilot was called Peter Barnes and the helicopter lifted off at 7.35 in the morning. Barnes was a highly experienced person who had flown for many high profile clients as well as working as a pilot for TV and film. The pilot called Thames Radar at 7.36 and stated that he was on route from Redhill Aerodrome to Ellstree Aerodrome. A route was given to him, this passed over the London Heliport at Battersea. At 7.48 in the morning and approaching Ellstree, Barnes told ATC that he was trying to find a hole, i.e. somewhere to land. When it was apparent that he was unable to land due to low cloud, Barnes sought out to return to Redhill. He turned his helicopter and requested the route to via the London Eye back down south. At 7.55 in the morning and now heading down south, G-C-R-S-T was put under radar control. One minute later, the pilot asked the Thames Radar controller, his Battersea opened due no. This now apparent change in destination was instigated by the pilot receiving a text from the client telling him that London Heliport was apparently open. Thames Radar told the pilot that the Heliport was indeed open, Rocket 2 replied, if I could head to Battersea that would be very useful. The controller told the pilot that they would have to call the London Heliport to see what the cloud cover was like. During this time, Rocket 2 broadcasts to the control, I can actually see Roxel, maybe if I could head down to Hotel 3, Hotel 4 sorry. Hotel 4 runs along the Thames and is one of the helicopter routes set through London. The ATC controller replied, Rocket 2, you can hold on the river for the minute between Roxel and Westminster bridges, I'll call you back. Not long after, the ATC stated that the London Heliport was seeing if they could accommodate Rocket 2. The helicopter crossed the north bank of the Thames at 970 feet heading southwest towards Battersea and began to turn right through north onto a south-easterly heading which took it back over the river facing Roxel Bridge. This was around at 7.58 in the morning. At 7.59, the tower controller said that Rocket 2 would be accepted at the Heliport. At 7.59 and 13 seconds, the ATC controller transmitted, Rocket 2, yeah, Battersea diversion approved, you're clear to Battersea. The pilot replied, lovely thanks Rocket 2. The pilot began to turn to the right at 770 feet. This was a being the building development at St George's Wharf, approximately 275 feet from the southeast end of Roxel Bridge. The turn brought the helicopter dangerously close to the crane working at St George's Wharf. The aircraft collided with the jib of the crane. The helicopter's main rotor blade separated from the main rotor head. The helicopter then smashed into the ground on Wandsworth Road. It burst into flames and killed pedestrian Matthew Wood. The collision also injured 12 more passengers by aftermath. As soon as the helicopter had crashed into the ground, the first 999 calls went in and emergency services were informed of the disaster. Police, fire and ambulance services rushed to the crash site. 88 fire brigade personnel attended to extinguish the blazing aircraft within 20 minutes. At the same time, others attended a number of damaged vehicles including a car which had also caught fire. The debris from the helicopter had to be collected for a later investigation. The crane was very much damaged and would require a specialist mobile crane to safely remove parts of it from the site. Vauxhall Station was closed in the immediate aftermath but was allowed to be reopened the following day. However, the bus garage would stay shut for another 5 days. By the 11th of February, all roads were reopened and for the most part everything had gone back to normal. But the question still loomed as to why the crash had happened. Sadly, it would be human in nature. You see, the helicopter was found to be mechanically sound pre-collision. Well, the Air Accident Investigation Branch would be the ones involved to find out the cause. The report that was released in March 2014 would place the blame squarely on the pilot, it would state. The pilot turned onto a collision course with the crane attached to the building and was probably unaware of the helicopter's proximity to the building at the beginning of the turn. They also said the pilot did not see the crane or saw it too late to take effective avoiding action. This was due to the poor visibility caused by the low clouds and mist. Really, the pilot should have just abandoned any attempt at landing in the London Heliport and instead just gone back to Red Hill. But to me, it feels like a classic case of completion bias. That is the tendency for a person to feel compelled to complete a task once they have started it. It is understandable as the helicopter was so close to the heliport and presumably returning to Red Hill would result in a loss of pay potentially and also a loss of cost of fuel and alike. It was also thought that distraction might have played apart as the pilot was attempting to change radio frequencies in order to arrange a landing spot at the London Heliport, which could have resulted in disorientation. Sadly, we will never know for certain why barns crashed but it is very likely the official report got it right. Just an unfortunate accident, which sadly took two people with it. The tower would go on to be completed as you can see here and this was done in January 2014. This is a plainly foot production. All videos on the channel are creative commas actuation share light licensed. Plainly foot videos are produced by me John in the currently cold and wet corner of southern London UK. I have a second youtube channel and also instagram as well as twitter or x whatever you want to call it so check that out for all sorts of mods and sods. I'd like to say a warm thank you to my patreon and youtube members for your financial support and the rest of you for tuning in every week. All that's left to say is thank you for watching and Mr Music, play us out please.