JOHN McGarrigle was on the bus to collect his girlfriend from hospital when a fellow passenger broke the news to him that a helicopter had smashed through the roof of the Clutha Vaults pub.
"I knew right away," he said. "I didn't believe it but as soon as the guy showed me a picture of it on his phone I said 'that's it, my dad's dead'. I knew he was there - he's there every Friday - and I could tell from where the helicopter had fallen that he would have been sitting right underneath. It was his favourite seat - he sat in the same place every week."
McGarrigle - looking exhausted after a night in the cold - said he would have been sitting beside his 59-year-old father, also called John, if his girlfriend had not become ill with a sudden asthma attack earlier on in the day. Instead, he was on his way to pick her up, and was planning to drop in at the pub on his way home with her to say hello to his father and the friends who gathered around their favourite table every Friday night.
By the time he reached the scene, McGarrigle had to be pulled back by police as he rushed through the cordon trying to reach the pub where he believed his father was trapped beneath the rubble where the roof had caved in.
"I've been here all night. My wee sister brought me a warm jacket at 2am - until then I'd just been wearing my tracksuit. I've tried phoning my dad on his mobile but there's no answer and he hasn't been home all night.
"His best friend, Sammy, is missing as well. His wife and daughter have been down here looking for him. I didn't know what to say. I feel sure that my dad's dead but you don't want to say that to someone else. One of their other friends, a woman who was with them, managed to get out.
''She went to the toilet a couple of minutes before and that's what saved her, because she was in a bit of the building that's solid concrete and it didn't take so much of the impact.
"She said she just heard this loud bang and when she came out everything was just dust and rubble. She managed to make it out the exit and she's okay."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article