Helicopter crashes near Co. Meath school

[pmtts]

An eye-witness has described the lucky escape of a pilot whose helicopter crashed near a school in County Meath.

The helicopter took off from Bettystown at about 1700 BST, but a short time later crashed near a hotel currently used as a temporary secondary school.

"He climbed down, ran away and when he was just 40 metres away it just exploded. Debris went everywhere," said eye-witness Peter Whelan.

Passengers had been left off at the beach just before the accident.

One person was taken to hospital in nearby Drogheda.

[golden rivet]

that school featured on tv 3 news the other day and is a great idea glad no one was seriously injured

[Darksaga]

Helicopter crashes in Co Meath

A helicopter has crashed in Bettystown in Co Meath.

The aircraft crashed beside the Neptune Hotel, which is currently being used as a temporary secondary school.

The crash scene is inside the entrance of Neptune Terrace, which is a row of houses facing Bettystown beach.
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The helicopter is an American-registered S76 helicopter with an Irish pilot on board.

It appears the pilot was attempting to land in Bettystown when the accident happened.

He escaped from the aircraft but two passers-by were hit with debris and some debris entered surrounding buildings.

The helicopter caught fire after it crashed but the emergency services extinguished the fire.

Four people including the pilot were taken to Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Drogheda, however, have now been discharged.

A boy remains in hospital with what are thought to be minor injuries.

There are three members of the Air Accident Investigation Unit from the Department of Transport on site.

The emergency services have cordoned off the area

http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0918/bettystown.html

Only down the road from me, place is in mayhem.

[Steamy Window]

Exciting times at home, there was an armed robbery nearby yesterday too!

[easyrider]

The DF were at the scene today, presumably in support of the Air Accident Investigation people, who were going around picking up the pieces. There was an Air Corps Recovery Unit truck, an Air Corps Fire Service 4x4, a couple of large Army transport trucks, one of which was carrying a blue shipping container, and a Nissan Patrol of course.

It is absolutely amazing that there were so few casualties. The heli came down in a small hotel car park, a couple of metres from the busy main road of the village, across from shops and apartments....

[Groundhog]

Sky News is showing CCTV footage of the crash.

[Darksaga]

Exciting times at home, there was an armed robbery nearby yesterday too!

yeah at my local shop!! pity im never around when these things happen.

[Fireplace]

Yikes! Thank God nobody was hurt. The outcome could have been awful.

[Muzzle]

yeah at my local shop!! pity im never around when these things happen.

You want to be in the middle of an armed robbery and a heli crash?

[mugs]

I used to have an Auntie who lived up on Eastham Road, Petty it didn't land on her!!!

[spudula]

I hope the ack ack werent on the range that day!!!!!!!

First confirmed kill ever, eh...........................

[Steamy Window]

yeah at my local shop!! pity im never around when these things happen.

Perfect alibi eh?

They missed the post office down the road though :confused:

[Goose]

why does the CCTV video have that music added to it, seems like a bit of a weird thing to add tothe video. Reminds me of the background music to a SEGA game

[Goose]

Ok, just looking at that video now, I think I can see what happened. If you blow it up you can see a pole just behind the chopper. When he's taking off, the pole appears to move slightly ( Its very grainy I know but I've watched it a few times now and I think thats what I see. ) To me it looks like the tail rotor clipped the pole and thus knocked it out of action.

[Goldie fish]

Another Irish pilot on US reg aircraft crash? Didnt the AAIU have an issue with this before? Also where was it tryin to land?