Lawyers Also Urge Investigators To Work Quickly To Release Final Accident Report

Specialist lawyers representing injured victims and families of those killed in the Clutha police helicopter tragedy have warned the latest update on investigations into the crash shows the clear need for action on regulations regarding the requirement to install black box equipment on such aircraft, and all other commercial passenger carrying helicopters that are currently exempt from this requirement.

An update issued by the Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB) related to the incident in Glasgow on November 29th last year has outlined how “significant work” was needed to extract information from systems on board the Eurocopter EC 135 involved, due to it not being fitted with flight data (FDR) or cockpit voice recorder (CVR) equipment used on larger aircraft.

The AAIB is expecting to now issue the final report on the tragedy in the middle of 2015.

Irwin Mitchell Scotland, working alongside colleagues in Irwin Mitchell’s Aviation Law team, is acting for 17 people including relatives of those who died and others injured during the crash and has repeatedly called for current laws which exempt helicopters below a certain weight from carrying black box equipment, to be urgently reviewed.

The legal experts, who are in negotiations with the lawyers of the flight operator Bond regarding settlements, also wrote to both the UK and Scottish Parliaments earlier this year for a public inquiry into commercial helicopter safety in general.