Three members of the public tried in vain to save a pilot who was killed this week in a helicopter crash in the Western Isles.
The trio were involved in the shoreside operations of the load transfer work the AS350 squirrel helicopter was carrying out before it ditched in Loch Scadavay, North Uist, on Wednesday.
Peter Clunas, 59, from Newburgh in Aberdeenshire, was pronounced dead at the loch edge after the group rowed across and pulled him out of the aircraft.
Sergeant Steven Rae of Benbecula Police said: “Three members of the public assisted in the recovery of the pilot. I would like to thank them for their help.”
The group had immediately raised the alarm with emergency services before rowing out to desperately try and save Mr Clunas. An ambulance took the pilot to the Uist and Barra hospital in Balivanich on neighbouring Benbecula.
The father-of-two was the only person on board the aircraft which was believed to be lifting a rowing boat at the time.
It also emerged yesterday that salvage experts have been called in to assess the best method to recover the submerged helicopter.
The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) said lifting the wreckage will be a complex operation before it is transported off the island to their base in Farnborough.
Alan Thorne, a senior inspector with the AAIB, said: “We are consulting with marine salvage experts to try and work out the best way to recover the helicopter without doing any more damage to it which might impede our investigation.
“The ground around the loch is very soft and boggy and that will be quite difficult with equipment.”
He added that the purpose of the site investigation is to understand what happened and why, and if there will be any safety recommendations.
