Lurgan woman’s panic after Glasgow helicopter crash

A Lurgan woman now living in Glasgow told the ‘MAIL’ of her moment of panic when she learnt that the bar her fiance had been in had been hit by a helicopter.
Debbie Kelly with her fiance Craig Carroll, who had been in the Clutha bar in Glasgow shortly before a police helicopter struck the bar killing nine people.Debbie Kelly with her fiance Craig Carroll, who had been in the Clutha bar in Glasgow shortly before a police helicopter struck the bar killing nine people.
Debbie Kelly with her fiance Craig Carroll, who had been in the Clutha bar in Glasgow shortly before a police helicopter struck the bar killing nine people.

Last Friday night at 10.30pm a police helicopter crash landed on the Clutha bar killing nine people.

Debbie Kelly, originally from Lurgan, now working as a doctor in Glasgow, had her heart in her mouth upon learning of the disaster, given that her fiance Craig Carroll had told her he’d been in the same bar that afternoon.

Debbie (32), who has lived in Glasgow since going to university there to study medicine, said: “I knew Craig had been in the Clutha in the afternoon. When I heard what had happened I phoned him and I’ve never been so glad to hear his voice.

“Thankfully he’d left to go and meet a friend in another pub.

“It’s scary to think of what could potentially have happened if he’d not gone to meet his friend,” said the former Lurgan College student.

Craig, who operates a music studio close to the Clutha and is a regular visitor there, said: “I’d finished work in the studio and gone for a drink in the Clutha. At that stage there weren’t many in. I left to go and meet a friend in a different pub which is over the bridge from the Clutha, about half a mile away.

“I got a couple of phone calls just after the helicopter crashed from Debs and from a mate of mine. I went outside the pub I was in and I could see all the commotion at the Clutha.

“It’s scary to think I’d been in there just a few hours previously and could easily have stayed on had it been a different night.”

The 31-year-old added: “It couldn’t have happened at a worse time as the club would have been packed for a live band. I’m friends with the barman who got injured, I think he broke both his legs, but I don’t know any of the ones who died.

“It’s a real tragedy. The Clutha is a great pub and attracts a really good crowd.”

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