Helicopter Pilot Arrested After Pub Crash

The pilot of a helicopter which smashed into a pub along the bank of a canal in Ireland has been arrested on suspicion of endangerment.

Video footage captured the pilot trying to land the Gazelle helicopter on the bank of the canal beside the Rustic Inn in Abbeyshurle in County Longford.

The pilot flew off and then made a second approach, as an onlooker cleared a picnic table to help the chopper land.

But as the aircraft manoeuvred and touched down unsteadily, the tail rotor swung round and hit the pub, causing a 10ft hole in the wall and a wrecked helicopter.

Ciaran Doyle, 14, from Aughnacliffe, Longford, was in Abbeyshrule with his father and recorded the crash.

"The impact was very fast but very noisy, it was shocking," he said.

"It flew around at the back of the village and it went quite high but then it came down towards the canal and it started to hover very low.

"As I was taking a video for about five minutes it hit off the Rustic Inn and flipped over on its side.

"I used the phone that I had been videoing with and phoned the emergency services."

Two men on board escaped with minor injuries.

Police said the arrested man, who is in his 60s and from the UK, was detained at Dublin airport.

The second man on board was named as David Bruton, the owner of Midland Aviation which is based at Abbeyshrule Aerodrome, about one mile from where the crash occurred.

The company has declined to comment.

The footage is being examined by the Irish government's Air Accident Investigation Unit.