‘It made a spluttering noise ...then the light went out’

●Moving tributes paid at the start of the Clutha helicopter crash inquiry ●Eyewitnesses describe the sound of the final moments of the flight ●Special hearing staged at Hampden set to last for six months

Witnesses to the Clutha tragedy that left ten people dead have described hearing a police helicopter suffering mechanical difficulties in the moments before it crashed into a busy city pub.

One described the aircraft as sounding “like an old car trying to start – but a thousand times louder” seconds before it plunged on to the roof of the Clutha Bar in Bridgegate near the River Clyde in Glasgow on 29 November, 2013.

The eyewitnesses were giving evidence yesterday on the opening day of the Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) into the disaster. Seven people inside the bar and three on board the helicopter were killed.

A minute’s silence was held at the start of the inquiry before Sheriff Principal Craig Turnbull in a

temporary court at Hampden Park, Glasgow.

Ernest Docherty, 64, said he had finished work and was walking to collect his car in the Gorbals before driving home.

As he crossed the King Street car park he became aware of the helicopter overhead, which the transport worker described as sounding like “an old car trying to start – but a thousand times louder”.

He said: “My initial thought was that it was going to come down behind The Clutha.”

Pub customers Mark O’prey, Gary Arthur, John Mcgarrigle, Colin Gibson, Robert Jenkins, Samuel Mcghee and Joe Cusker died, while pilot David Traill and crew Tony Collins and Kirsty Nelis were also killed in the crash.

Personal statements about some of those who died were read out in tribute.

Kerry Mcghee described her father, Samuel Mcghee, as a hard worker who was “very sociable” with “many friends”.

A statement from Colin Gibson’s family said: “If you were lucky enough to meet him, you knew you had as he left a lasting impression on you. Ever since he was a young boy he enjoyed helping people.

“He had never visited the Clutha bar before. Colin just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The sisters of Gary Arthur told the inquiry in a statement: “Nothing will ever bring our brother back but hopefully we will finally be given the chance to find closure.

“We want to remember Gary as a much-loved person and not just a victim of the Clutha.”

The first person to give evidence was Andrew Bergen. The 30-year-old solicitor from Airdrie, North Lanarkshire, said he was walking along the Clyde walkway on the south bank of the river on the night of the tragedy.

He said of the helicopter: “It made what I can only describe as a spluttering noise. It wasn’t any lower than I would have seen it before.

“The tail of the helicopter dipped and pointed to the ground. Simultaneously, the light on the helicopter went out. It seemed to me that the rotor stopped spinning. It was still turning but not under power.

“It seemed to immediately lose height as soon as the spluttering occurred.

“Everything happened more or less at the same time.”

Brian Stewart, 50, was on Dyer’s Lane when his attention was drawn to the helicopter.

The electric production operator from Glasgow said: “I had heard a noise coming from it. It was kind of like when you stall your car when you have it in the wrong gear and it struggles, kind of like that.

“The engine started cutting [out]. It happened a couple of times then it fell behind the building in front of me on Turnbull Street. “That’s where I last seen it.” 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 inside the Clutha when the helicopter, returning to its base on the banks of the River Clyde, crashed through the roof. It was operated by Bond Air Services on behalf of Police Scotland.

An Air Accidents Investigations Branch (AAIB) report published in 2015 found that two fuel supply switches were off, and the pilot did not follow emergency procedures after a fuel warning alert in the cockpit.

The Crown Office has previously said there is insufficient evidence for criminal proceedings.

A total of 57 Crown witnesses are expected to give evidence at the inquiry, down from a previous estimate of 85.

Police have taken more than 2,000 statements as part of preparations for the FAI, while the Crown has around 1,400 productions.

The inquiry is expected to involve around three months of evidence spread over six calendar months this year.

The Clutha eventually reopened with a new bar layout in July 2015, with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon among those in attendance.

Lawyers representing the victims of the disaster described the pub’s re-opening at the time as an “important step forward” for Glasgow.

Theresa May doesn’t seem like much of a risk-taker. She‘s hardly the sort of flamboyant and charismatic populist who has the power to talk people into doing something monumentally stupid and genuinely dangerous.

But, belying her rather grey personality, the Prime Minister is once again loading a metaphorical revolver with a single bullet to play a game of Russian roulette with the economy of the UK and the jobs and livelihoods of millions of people.

On Friday, as things stand, Britain will leave the EU without a deal, a situation that has virtually united business leaders, unions, bankers and other assorted experts in expressions of horror. The effect on the economy of the UK’S overnight removal from the EU has been compared to the 2008 financial crash by the Bank of England, an assessment that bears repeating as Cabinet ministers like Andrea Leadsom claim it would be “not nearly as grim as many would advocate”. (Note she doesn’t say it wouldn’t be grim, just not as grim as some suggest.)

The last time the country was in this position, in the week before the original “Brexit Day” on 29 March, a no-deal was only prevented at the 11th hour when UK law was hurriedly

changed. The vast majority of UK and EU politicians do not want a no-deal Brexit to happen and May is planning to ask for another extension until 30 June at an emergency summit of EU leaders tomorrow, just two days before the UK is due to leave. The response is entirely dependant on the agreement of all the other 27 EU states; a single dissenter would prevent a further extension.

Perhaps lulled into complacency by the endless wrangling, our politicians seem far too confident that there will not be a last-minute hitch in the process of postponing Brexit yet again – the 11th-hour intervention seems scarily close to becoming accepted as the norm. If the UK’S request for an extension is accepted, will the country find itself in the same situation again in the last week of June? At what point will the patience of a single EU member state run out?

There are clearly British politicians who want a no-deal Brexit and who are trying to make that happen. But there is no public mandate for such an outcome. Given the “will of the people” in 2016 was only narrowly in favour of leaving the EU, it is delusional to suggest a majority would be in favour of doing so in such a wilfully reckless way.