A pub has been accused of mocking the recent Glasgow air crash by advertising itself as “100% HELICOPTER PROOF”.
The sick sign was spotted outside the Red Lion pub in Wadhurst, East Sussex, more than 450 miles away from the Clutha Pub in Glasgow, where a Police Scotland helicopter crashed on November 29, killing nine people.
The blackboard outside the small village pub reads: “This week now 100% helicopter proof.”
Tony Gale, an amateur photographer from nearby Tunbridge Wells, Kent, spotted the sign yesterday afternoon.
He said: “I actually feel slightly bad because I like the pub and it needs some support, but the landlord has made a big mistake with that sign.”
Tony Gale, who snapped the picture of the sick pub sign, slammed the tasteless joke as a ‘sick PR stunt.’
He said: “I think they were trying to be imaginative and come up with a viral way to get the pub noticed.
“They certainly have, but it’s more of a sick PR stunt.
“They have done something that is in poor taste, and in time, no doubt, they will realise how dumb it was.
“You have got to be held accountable for your actions. People lost their lives up there.”
A local resident, who has lived in the village of Sparrows Green for 40 years, said: “I didn’t think it was very nice at all.
“They usually use that sign to advertise their bands that they have one, but to put that certainly is very tasteless indeed.
“In fact, it’s unacceptable to make a mockery of something so tragic.
“You wouldn’t make up a joke about Nelson Mandela’s death, so you definitely shouldn’t be making up jokes about a tragedy which claimed so many lives.”
Another angry resident said: “I couldn’t believe it, it’s so shocking.
“They’ve been trying to improve the image of that pub for the last few years, but they’ve gone right back down in my estimation now.
“I would hope it was just the work of a sick prankster with chalk, but I don’t know.
“I think the sign must have been out there for a few days. I don’t go in there any more so I wouldn’t know.
“People should never make jokes about tragedies.”
The landlord was unavailable for comment.