2013 Glasgow helicopter crash
Bond Air Services for Police Scotland Eurocopter EC135-T2+ · Fuel starvation due to pilot error
From Glasgow City Heliport (EGEG) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- CEN14WA073
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 10 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 7
- Occupants
- 3
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 31 · all on the ground
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Government
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Eurocopter EC135-T2+
- Aircraft type
- Eurocopter EC135
- Category
- Helicopter
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- G-SPAO
- Onboard fatalities
- 3
- Route
- From Glasgow City Heliport (EGEG)To not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Non-Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Not recorded
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Not recorded
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Substantial
Cause areas
- Aircraft › Fluids/misc hardware
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Personnel issues › Action/decision
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On 29 November 2013, a police helicopter operated by Bond Air Services for Police Scotland crashed into The Clutha, a pub in central Glasgow, killing all three crew on board and seven patrons of the pub. Thirty-one more people in the pub were injured.
The subsequent investigation concluded that the cause of the crash was fuel starvation due to incorrect operation of the fuel system.
Accident
The helicopter took off from its base at Glasgow City Heliport (which at the time operated from Stobcross Quay adjacent to the SECC) at 20:45 on 29 November 2013. The pilot was 51-year-old David Traill; Traill had flown Chinook helicopters in the RAF for 20 years, latterly as an instructor. He had worked for the police for four years, and had 646 hours of flight experience on the EC135. The helicopter carried two police observers, PCs Kirsty Nelis and Tony Collins. On takeoff it carried 400 kg of fuel.
The flight, callsign SP99, was initially involved in the search for a suspected trespasser on railway lines around Eglinton Toll. It was then tasked to Dalkeith in Midlothian, around 44 mi east of its base, before returning to the Glasgow area. A few minutes before the crash, the pilot had received air traffic control clearance to return to Glasgow City Heliport.
At 22:22, approximately 2 mi east of its home base, the helicopter crashed on the flat roof of The Clutha, a pub in Stockwell Street (Clutha is Latin for the River Clyde, which is adjacent to the pub). No distress call was made. A ska band, Esperanza, was playing in the pub at the time of the crash and there were reported to be around 120 people in the building, some of whom were trapped by the collapsing roof. The three helicopter occupants and six people on the ground were killed. Thirty-two others were injured, twelve seriously, one of whom died some days later. One witness, Gordon Smart, editor of the Scottish Sun, stated that he did not see a fireball or hear an explosion, and that the engine seemed to be misfiring.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), which is responsible for investigating aircraft crashes in the United Kingdom, launched an investigation into the cause of the accident. Assistance in the investigation was provided by the German Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation and the French Bureau d'Enquêtes et d'Analyses pour la Sécurité de l'Aviation Civile aviation incident investigation bodies (the manufacturers of the helicopter and its engine are based in Germany and France). The American National Transportation Safety Board (representing the state of the manufacturer of the engines' FADEC controls), also provided assistance.
The wreckage of the helicopter arrived at the AAIB's headquarters at Farnborough, Hampshire on 3 December. The aircraft was not fitted with flight data recorders but the electronics fitted to the aircraft could contain data helpful in determining the cause of the accident.
Final report
The final accident report was published in October 2015. It found the main cause of the accident to be fuel starvation due to the fuel transfer pumps being switched off "for unknown reasons." This resulted in the engines flaming out despite there being 73 kg of usable fuel remaining in the main tank. A failure to land within ten minutes of the first low-fuel warning, as prescribed by emergency checklists, and a failure to achieve a successful autorotation after both engines failed were cited as additional causal factors.
The AAIB also identified as contributory factor that the radar altimeter and the steerable landing light were both unpowered following the engine flame-out, leading to a loss of height information and reduced visual cues during the autorotation manoeuvre. Seven safety recommendations were made.
Text from the Wikipedia article “2013 Glasgow helicopter crash” (revision 1368406611, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
NTSB narrative
On November 29, 2013, at 2222 universal coordinated time (UTC), a United Kingdom registered EC-135 T2 helicopter, G-SPAO, impacted a public house near Glasgow, United Kingdom. The crew of three in the helicopter and six other persons were fatally injured.
The investigation is under the jurisdiction of the government of the United Kingdom. Further information may be obtained from:
Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) Farnborough House Aldershot Hampshire GU11 2HH United Kingdom
Verbatim NTSB factual narrative from the NTSB dataset
Sources
Wikipedia article: 2013 Glasgow helicopter crash
- Revision
- 1368406611 · 2026-08-08 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q15259994
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record CEN14WA073
- Event ID
- 20131202X75336
- Case number
- CEN14WA073
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "2013 Glasgow helicopter crash" (page 41226911, revision 1368406611); merged with NTSB case CEN14WA073 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record CEN14WA073
- Operation
- operator named as flying for a government agency in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Reviewed (2026-09-19): AAIB Aircraft Accident Report 3/2015 (G-SPAO): the three occupants and seven people in the bar were fatally injured, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5669498c40f0b60369000004/AAR_3-2015_G-SPAO_12-15.pdf
- Ground fatalities
- Reviewed (2026-09-19): AAIB Aircraft Accident Report 3/2015 (G-SPAO): the three occupants and seven people in the bar were fatally injured, https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5669498c40f0b60369000004/AAR_3-2015_G-SPAO_12-15.pdf
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "2013 Glasgow helicopter crash" and NTSB case CEN14WA073, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- Death toll settled: the NTSB record (CEN14WA073) gives 9 and the Wikipedia article 10; AAIB Aircraft Accident Report 3/2015 (G-SPAO): the three occupants and seven people in the bar were fatally injured gives 10. Later death. The NTSB's 9 (3 aboard + 6 in the bar) was recorded before one seriously injured person in the bar died on 12 Dec 2013. The AAIB final report counts 7 ground deaths.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.