HELICOPTER crash bar The Clutha is to be torn down and replaced by a revamped pub and multi-million pound arts complex.
The move will see a new boozer of the same name – using sections of the old one – on the existing site along with an arts community hub and apartment lets.
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A tower development will also include a memorial to the ten souls who perished in the horror smash in Glasgow ten years ago this Wednesday.
Owner Alan Crossan says redeveloping the iconic pub ensures it will never have last orders called – and the bar will always belong to its punters.
The bar boss, 70, said: “The idea about the development is keeping the Clutha here forever.
“Everybody’s life comes to an end so the worry would be what happens to the site in the future when I’m no longer around.
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“It’s one of the prime sites in Glasgow and one of the most important according to the council. It’s known worldwide.
“What we are trying to create is a music, arts and drama hub, which is literally mad, m.a.d.
“Because of what happened this place is special and iconic, it’s got to stay.
He added: “There will be a permanent memorial for those who died.”
Alan says he regularly still thinks about the helicopter crash a decade later.
He said: “It’s very hard to go a day without it drifting into your thoughts or someone reminding you.
“The sad thing is whenever I speak to families of the victims it reminds them of it.”
When the crash happened on 29 November 2013 Alan was recovering from a heart attack which he’d suffered around four weeks before on Halloween.
He was resting up at home when news first began to come through about the crash – with his staff initially now wanting to add to his woes.
Alan said: “The pub manager Saverio phoned my wife Gill and said don’t tell Alan but the roof’s come in.
“That’s when he panicked, he called back and said it’s OK a police helicopter has come in.
“He thought it was his fault, he panicked in the situation.”
He went on: “I went down and stood at the other side of the Clyde. The police wouldn’t let us past the cordon.
“The bizarre thing about it was there was total silence, that silence that goes right through you.
“We were hoping not one had died and didn’t know how serious it was.
“At one point the cops took me home to get my heart medication in a squad car.
“We started watching it on the telly before going back.”
Alan had little detail about what had happened and whether people had been killed or injured.
He said: “The pub had the feel of a local but it was folk from all areas of Glasgow in there. We had very limited information about what was going on.
“You start to hear about people dying and get the feeling of death around you.
“You’re hearing about the death count and didn’t know who was injured.
“I lived just across from it in the Gorbals when I was a wee boy. So at Christmas time you could see the Clyde and the neon lights flickering on the water.
“When I was looking at the scene of the Clutha it was just silence, I could see the flashing lights flickering on the water and I kept going back to my times at Christmas.
“And I kept going to back to what was going on in that pub. You’re still thinking about Christmas because that’s what you’ve got in front of your eyes.
“It was the strangest thing.”
After hours of waiting around Alan’s worse fears were realised when it emerged there had been multiple fatalities.
He said: “It was hard to understand. With grief you have different emotions and guilt was one of them. You aren’t immune to feeling hurt about it.
“You start to think why did I not do this and why did I not do that? Is there anything I could have done to stop that happening? Sometimes I’d feel guilt because it was my pub.
“At one point I’d planned to get permission for a roof garden, I wondered if I’d built that would it have happened?
“Things like that hit you, it’s part of the grieving process, the guilt.”
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STURGEON RECALLS HORROR NIGHT
NICOLA Sturgeon says the Clutha disaster saw the best of Glasgow spirit shine through the shadow of tragedy.
The former First Minister, who was Alex Salmond’s deputy at the time, has recalled her memories of the crash ten years on.
Speaking on a new BBC ALBA documentary Clutha, she said: “I think we’ve all got a tendency to glamourise, be a bit misty eyed about our own home cities and towns.
“But there was a sense of Glasgow putting it arms round itself and everybody affected by the Clutha.
“It was palpable and tangible. It was a strange week and one in which everything people talk about when they think about Glasgow, the warmth and friendliness of the people, the solidarity, the gallusness of the city.
“All of that came to the fore.”
Ms Sturgeon told how she still “vividly remembers” how the horror unfolded.
She said: “I was at home and started to see something appearing on Twitter. Something had happened down by the river. Something had crashed.
“The Clutha started to be mentioned and then I remember then the talk of a helicopter crashing into the Clutha.
“I’ve started to rationally think it through, it’s almost 10.30 on a Friday night, a helicopter, the only helicopters that are likely to be flying at this time of a Friday night are the police helicopter or air ambulance.
“I was just thinking oh my God it must be one of them.”
She went on: “The emergency services responded instantly.
“But the complexities of that scene I think very quickly meant that there was going to be time and effort required to understand exactly what the lie of the land was and how they would then go about a rescue operation.”
The ex-SNP chief also spoke fondly of her memories of the pub before the horror accident.
She said: “The Clutha was a really special place in Glasgow folklore really.
“Somewhere that always has a really special atmosphere, a really friendly intimate atmosphere and you know in many respects a Glasgow institution.
“It was a pub I think for people who liked music but also for people who like a bit of politics, discussion and chat which is what appealed to me.”
– Clutha, will be broadcast on BBC ALBA at 9pm on Wednesday 29 November 2023, and will also be on the iPlayer for 30 days.
Since the crash the Clutha Trust has been set up which has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for local causes.
There also been the creation of the Clutha Choir singing group and Clutha Kids which supports the creative dreams of youngsters.
Alan said: “The last decade has felt both quick and long. It’s been driven by the charity and what we are doing with that.
“We have created something good and positive from a horrendous event. It’s a legacy.
“Hopefully I can maybe take a step back in a couple of years and get a good board in to run it.”
He went on: “There’s a lot of friendships I’ve formed, the families of those who died and the injured. Before the crash no one really knew I was the owner, I had a very low profile.
“I liked to go and listen to music sometimes but I didn’t want to speak to everyone. It’s different now obviously.
“The atmosphere is brilliant in the pub now. It’s part of the charity now and any profit we make goes to the Clutha Trust.
“I’m trying to create the Clutha for Glasgow so it will belong to the city. And the memories of those who died will always be part of that.”
On the anniversary the bar will host tribute performances from live bands and the Clutha Choir.
In 2019 Sheriff Principal Craig Turnbull concluded the pilot Captain David Traill, 52, was at fault because he ignored fuel alerts.
We exclusively told how a draft report had revealed various mechanical errors were to blame for the crash, but they were wiped from the final version.
But this was ignored during the fatal accident inquiry, and the findings have been widely condemned by victims’ relatives.
Read more on the Scottish Sun
Captain Traill, PC Tony Collins, 43, and PC Kirsty Nelis, 36, died in the helicopter.
John McGarrigle, 57, Mark O’Prey, 44, Gary Arthur, 48, Colin Gibson, 33, Robert Jenkins, 61, Samuel McGhee, 56, and Joe Cusker, 59, were killed in the pub.