Emmerdale helicopter crash angers Clutha Vaults disaster families

Harriet Conner wrote: “The people of Glasgow are still affected by this tragedy”.

An online petition on change.org has been set up by support group the Clutha Trust, appealing to Emmerdale producer Kate Oates not to air the episodes, and has already gained more than 900 signatures.

Kerry McGhee, whose father Samuel McGhee died in the crash, signed the petition, commenting: “I’m signing because my father was killed in this accident and I find it disgusting that people want to use it as a storyline”.

Relatives of victims of the disaster and the owner of the newly opened Glasgow bar hit out at Emmerdale bosses for upsetting scenes which show a chopper smashing into the roof of the village hall this week.

A dramatic story unfolding on the ITV soap every night this week will see a helicopter crash through the roof of the village hall in the middle of Pete Barton’s wedding to Debbie Dingle, and at least one major cast member will be killed off.

In reaction, Oates said at a press day ahead of the episodes: “I think editorially, whenever you’re looking at any potential disaster scenario you have to consider it very carefully”.

In a statement, an ITV spokesman added: ‘The helicopter crash circumstances are very different to any real life cases that we are aware of. So we kept it very deliberately far apart.

Chrissie sets light to her husband’s prized auto and the fire is soon out of control causing a stack of gas canisters to explode just as the arriving helicopter passes. It’s apples and oranges really, because they’re very different stories. The blaze spreads to a scrapyard, causing a gas canister to explode and engulf the helicopter, downing it in the process.

Emmerdale’s disaster week starts Monday at 7pm, with an hour-long special on Thursday. . The accident will apparently take the lives of a number of the soap’s characters, and viewers will have to tune in to the rest of the week’s episodes to discover the extent of the fallout.