Two members of the British army's 5th Air Corps were killed yesterday when their helicopter crashed on the outskirts of Derry. George Jackson reports.
The two crew men died instantly when their Gazelle helicopter crashed into a field adjoining the grounds of City of Derry Rugby Club just after 3.30 p.m. No-one else was in the helicopter.
Investigations into the crash will be carried out by the Civil Aviation Authority and by a special team from the RAF to determine what caused the helicopter to spin out of control before it plummeted into the field. Initial reports have ruled out any paramilitary involvement in the incident.
The two crew, who were based at Aldergrove near Belfast, were on what an RAF spokesman described as a routine sortie from Omagh to Ballykelly.
It's believed the Gazelle helicopter developed a technical fault 12 miles from its destination and crashed, narrowly avoiding two small housing developments as well as the main Derry to Limavady dual carriageway.
"There was nothing unusual about this sortie, it was routine," said RAF Group Captain Martin Sharp. "The crew of a second helicopter, a Puma, had seen the Gazelle just a few minutes before the tragedy.
"There was no contact that I am aware of between the two crews before the crash. It appears that the pilot of the Gazelle fought to avoid the houses.
"This is the way it seems at the moment, but we do not know what degree of control he had. My initial thoughts are with the families of the two servicemen whom we're trying to contact at the moment.
" The Gazelle has a very good flight safety record and it will be up to the accident investigators to determine the cause of the accident," he said.
Meanwhile, several eye witnesses spoke of the helicopter "falling from the sky like a stone".
Mr John Arbuckle, who was driving along the motorway beside the rugby club grounds, said he saw the Gazelle plunging to the ground.
"The crew had no chance. It was spinning and it just dropped like a stone and crashed. A few of us ran to the scene but we quickly realised there was nothing we could do for the two men in the aircraft," he said. Local resident Ms Denise Cheshire said she believed the helicopter had an engine problem seconds before the crash.
"I live under a flight path regularly used by the army, so I'm used to hearing helicopters flying overhead. I thought I heard a grinding noise coming from the helicopter just seconds before the crash," she said.
Mr James Deehan, who was visiting his parents in their Gransha Park home about 100 yards from the crash site, said: "There was nothing anyone could have done for those two men."