The pilot flew off and then
made a second approach, as an onlooker cleared a picnic table to help the
chopper land.
The pilot of a helicopter which smashed into a pub along the bank of a canal in Ireland has been arrested on suspicion of endangerment.
The pilot of a helicopter which smashed into a pub along the bank of a canal in Ireland has been arrested on suspicion of endangerment.
Video footage captured the
pilot trying to land the Gazelle helicopter on the bank of the canal beside the
Rustic Inn in Abbeyshurle in County Longford.
But as the aircraft
manoeuvred and touched down unsteadily, the tail rotor swung round and hit the
pub, causing a 10ft hole in the wall and a wrecked helicopter.
Ciaran Doyle, 14, from
Aughnacliffe, Longford, was in Abbeyshrule with his father and recorded the
crash.
"The impact was very
fast but very noisy, it was shocking," he said.
"It flew around at the
back of the village and it went quite high but then it came down towards the
canal and it started to hover very low.
"As I was taking a
video for about five minutes it hit off the Rustic Inn and flipped over on its
side.
"I used the phone that
I had been videoing with and phoned the emergency services."
Two men on board escaped
with minor injuries.
Police said the arrested
man, who is in his 60s and from the UK, was detained at Dublin airport.
The second man on board was
named as David Bruton, the owner of Midland Aviation which is based at
Abbeyshrule Aerodrome, about one mile from where the crash occurred.
The company has declined to
comment.
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