Rescue workers lift the rear rotor blades from the site of the police helicopter crash onto the Clutha Pub in central Glasgow.
Emergency workers in Scotland yesterday pulled a body from the wreckage of a pub into which a police helicopter crashed during a concert, and were searching for more victims, police said.
Deputy chief constable Rose Fitzpatrick, of Police Scotland, said in Glasgow that the final toll would not be certain until the wreckage of the helicopter is removed from the pub.
“Earlier yesterday morning, the body of another person was removed from the incident site,” she told reporters. “Work also continues to recover further bodies from the site. Until we remove the helicopter, we cannot be sure what we will find.”
Twelve people remain in hospital, while eight have been confirmed dead after Friday’s accident, and workers are still trying to remove the smashed helicopter from the Clutha pub and music venue in the city centre, Fitzpatrick said.
“This is a painstaking process which we expect to take some time because we need to ensure the safety of the operation,” she said.
On Saturday, police said the helicopter’s crew - two police officers and a civilian pilot - were among the dead.
Witnesses said the helicopter “dropped like a stone”, crashing into the pub’s roof and causing part of it to collapse onto those inside.
One described the scene as “total bedlam”, with people struggling to breathe in the dust-filled venue.
One survivor, Craig Bain, visited the scene yesterday to pay his respects to the dead. Others laid flowers near the pub. “I just remember waking up and being pulled out by a fireman,” a tearful Bain, his head bandaged, told STV News.
“There was a man on the news whose dad was right next to me. He was one of the dead.”
Investigators are still examining the cause of the crash.
Police meanwhile appealed for anyone with video footage of the crash to send it to them, saying it “may be of help to the team as they investigate the cause of the crash”.
The Air Accident Investigation Bureau said it had sent a team to the scene amid reports that the company that leased the chopper to the police had temporarily grounded that model last year.
The 12-metre (40-foot) helicopter was a twin-engine Eurocopter EC135 T2, made by a subsidiary of EADS.
Bond Air Services found a crack on part of the main rotor and grounded its fleet of 22 EC135s for a month while it carried out checks and reported it to Eurocopter and the European Aviation Safety Agency, the Guardian newspaper said.
Bond was not immediately available for comment.
“Everybody wants to know what went so catastrophically wrong,” said Scotland’s Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon. “It is too early to speculate. We all want to know the answers and I am sure that picture will become clearer in the days, weeks and months to come.”
She paid tribute to the emergency workers and bystanders who helped injured people out of the wreckage. Sturgeon earlier attended a service at Glasgow Cathedral where eight candles were lit for the victims.
Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond called it a “black day” and ordered flags to fly at half-mast. A minute’s silence was held ahead of a football match between Falkirk and Rangers. Queen Elizabeth II said her prayers were with the victims while British Prime Minister David Cameron praised the “bravery of the ordinary Glaswegians” who rushed to help.