Liam O’Prey attends the funeral service of his father Mark at St Bride’s RC Church in East Kilbride. (Picture: Reuters)

Mystery still surrounds the exact cause of the Glasgow helicopter tragedy after investigators said they had found no sign of engine or gearbox failure.

A police helicopter crashed on to the flat roof of the Clutha bar on the night of November 29 with a high rate of descent and with low or negligible forward speed, a special bulletin from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch revealed.

But the AAIB added that the weather was good, that so far there was no evidence of engine or gearbox failure and that ‘all significant components were present’ at the time of impact.

In addition, the helicopter still had 95 litres of the 400kg of fuel it had taken off with from Glasgow City Heliport.




The AAIB said the twin-engined Eurocopter EC 135 aircraft had no flight recorders, nor was required to do so.

But there were some non crash-protected system recordings that could be studied, along with radio communications and closed circuit TV recordings.

Saying that the investigation would continue, the AAIB promised to report any significant developments.

Nine people were killed when a police helicopter crashed into the roof of the packed Clutha pub (Picture: Reuters)

The pilot of the helicopter David Traill, 51, and his two passengers – police officers Kirsty Nelis, 36, and Tony Collins, 43 – were killed in the crash, as were six people inside the pub.

The bulletin traced the events of the Friday night of the crash.

In good visibility and light winds, the helicopter had left Glasgow City Heliport at 8.45pm, gone first to the south side of the city, then on to Dalkeith in Midlothian about 40 miles away, before returning to Glasgow.

The pilot had requested and received clearance from air traffic controllers to re-enter the Glasgow control zone at 10.18pm and there were no further radio transmissions received from him.

The AAIB added that radar contact with the helicopter was lost at 10.22pm.

The report went on: ‘Around this time, the helicopter was seen and heard by a witness who described hearing a noise like a loud ‘misfiring car’, followed by silence.

‘He then saw the helicopter descend rapidly. It crashed through the roof of the Clutha Bar, a single-storey building on Stockwell Street in central Glasgow.’

Meanwhile, the first funerals have taken place for Clutha bar customers who died in the helicopter crash.

Family and friends of ‘lovable giant’ Mark O’Prey gathered to remember him in East Kilbride, while the funeral of Gary Arthur took place in Paisley.