Colin McCrae helicopter crash witness recounts moments before accident

A police officer today told an inquiry into an accident which killed former world rally champion Colin McRae how a helicopter came straight towards him before veering behind a line of trees.

Graeme Henderson, 38, said everything went quiet and he realised something was wrong when police cars started to arrive minutes later.

The witness was giving evidence at a fatal accident inquiry at Lanark Sheriff Court, following the 2007 helicopter crash.

McRae, 39, died when the Eurocopter Squirrel he was piloting came down near his house in Lanark on September 15 that year.

His five-year-old son Johnny, the boy's six-year-old school friend Ben Porcelli, and McRae's friend Graeme Duncan, 37, were also killed in the crash.

Mr Henderson told the inquiry today that he was off duty in Bellfield Park, near Lanark, with his wife and children at about 3pm that day when he spotted the helicopter.

Mr Henderson told the court his immediate thought when he saw the aircraft was that the pilot was "showing off a bit", and that the move seemed unusual.

However, during cross-questioning by Paul McBride QC, representing the McRae family, the witness said he did not think he was showing off and that it was "the wrong choice" of words to use.

"I heard a noise, looked up, and there was a helicopter flying directly towards us, he said.

He added: "As I was watching it, it veered sharply to the left."

He went on: "Everything went quiet after the helicopter went behind the trees.

"It was only a few minutes later, five to 10 minutes later, when police cars started arriving, I thought there was something wrong."