morddwyd - at that height may not have been under radar surveillance but whether he was under radar surveillance is probably irrelevant. ATC would have no idea about his briefing (probably self-briefed).

Jock1e - helicopters do fly low he was enroute to Battersea not far away. He would not have been given the wrong instructions.

There is no point in speculating as at this stage we don't know all of the facts eg did he have a malfunction?

Whatever the reasons this was a terrible tragedy and many more lives could have been lost that day.

When buildings get higher and traffic (both air and ground) gets more denser, then there is bound to be higher risks and all eventualities can never be covered.

A few years ago, we had an helicopter incident not far from where I live. Everyone was killed in that incident, and it all finally came down to sudden change in weather conditions (fog) and pilot error.

There was also another local helicopter incident with a fatality, when the police helicopter flew into nearby power lines outside the base. The helicopter pilot's were well aware of these power lines, but on this particular event I believe fog and pilot error again took its toll. The replacement police helicopter still flies from this same base.

I think helicopters are not allowed to fly over a certain height in the London area because of the flight paths in to other airports. So with a minimum height and a maximum height, they are sort of squashed in to a sandwich like area.

As for the crane driver/operator, one of his workmates said he was lucky because he hadn't arrived when the accident occurred. I didn't hear any of his co-workers say he was half way up the thing when it happened. But if that was so then he must be still suffering from shock. Whichever, I bet he was glad it was his turn to run his children to school that morning.

The crane driver was on Radio 4's PM programme this evening. He overslept (because his kids had overslept and he relies on them to wake him!) and had just arrived on site when the crash occurred. He said that the event would not put him off working on cranes.