Mortimer pilot was asked to delay flight, investigation report reveals

Cpt Pete Barnes, aged 50, died from multiple injuries last Wednesday after his Agusta 109, a lightweight, twin engine helicopter, hit a crane in Vauxhall, South London.
After hitting the crane the helicopter fell on to Wandsworth Road and fatally injured a pedestrian just 20 yards from Vauxhall railway station.
The initial report by the Air Accident Investigation branch of the Department for Transport showed that the client suggested twice that the take off be delayed but that Cpt Barnes said that he had already started the engines.
It states that at 7.18am, the client, who has not been named, raised concerns with Cpt Barnes, who said he thought the weather might clear.
The client then called again with the same concerns at 7.31am.
The report also showed that the top of the crane, which the helicopter hit, was obscured by cloud.
An inquest at Southwark Coroner’s Court heard earlier in the week that Cpt Barnes was en route from Surrey to Hertfordshire when he was diverted to Battersea heliport before the crash.
The director of Mortimer-based company Helivision Ltd was pronounced dead at the scene.
The inquest has been opened and adjourned for a later date.
The craft had been supplied by Surrey-based private charter company Rotormotion. According to the firm’s website, Cpt Barnes had flown for them as a freelance pilot since 1997, having clocked up about 9,000 flying hours, about 3,500 of them in Agusta helicopters, the type he was piloting at the time of the accident.
The father of two has been described as one of the most experienced pilots in the country with about 25-years worth of flying experience.
Cpt Barnes’s skills had also been used in action movies, including the James Bond film Die Another Day and Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan.
For tributes to Cpt Barnes see tomorrow's Newbury Weekly News.