Helicopter crash: Vauxhall offices evacuated as emergency services clear area around crash site

Raj Tailor was evacuated from his office in Wandsworth Road when emergency services cordoned off the area around the wreckage and crane. Photo: Raj Tailor

Lizzie Dearden, Reporter Wednesday, January 16, 2013
2:06 PM

Workers were evacuated from offices in Vauxhall this morning after a helicopter crashed in the street killing at least two people.

The crane on top of a residential tower at One St George Wharf was shrouded in fog. Photo: Raj Tailor

Raj Tailor, of Seven Kings, works in an office in Wandsworth Road, where the helicopter fell.

He said: “I think it’s fortunate that it wasn’t a bit later because it gets busy with pedestrians and people on their way to work.

“The fog was quite heavy. You couldn’t see the top of the tower even when I was at work.”

Police evacuated the building around 9.30am as the area around the crane and wreckage was cleared.

The helicopter was thought to be on a commercial flight when it hit the crane in dense fog and cartwheeled to the ground, covering nearby streets with flaming wreckage and burning aviation fuel.

More than ten people were injured in the accident shortly before 8am.

The pilot died in the crash and a person in a building is thought to have been killed by burning debris.

A spokesman from the London Heliport at Battersea said the pilot had requested to divert the helicopter because of bad weather.

It was following the River Thames when it hit the crane on top of 50-storey tower at One St George Wharf.