Wedding helicopter crashes into village hall and changes Emmerdale forever

It's a jaw-dropping, life-changing week for Emmerdale as Pete Barton and Debbie Dingle's wedding turns into carnage when a helicopter plunges into the reception at the village hall.

 

Debbie, of course, has been conducting a torrid affair with Pete's brother Ross, a relationship which Pete discovers at the reception when he reads a Dear John letter Debbie wrote when she was about to leave him. As he reels from the discovery, there's a bigger shock to come...

 

 

Before that, Pete proudly tells his bride that he’s booked a surprise helicopter to whisk them away on their honeymoon. Elsewhere, however, Chrissie is rowing with husband Robert and she douses his car in petrol and sets it alight. But the fire quickly spread to Adam Barton's car, then on to some gas canisters. When they explode, the descending helicopter is caught in the flames!

 

 

The stunt is unsurpassed in Emmerdale's 37 years on air.

 

Some villagers will die in the disaster, but who?

 

Watch Emmerdale on ITV this week. The helicopter disaster screens in a special hour-long episode on Tuesday night.

Patrick McLennan

Patrick McLennan is a London-based journalist and documentary maker who has worked as a writer, sub-editor, digital editor and TV producer in the UK and New Zealand. His CV includes spells as a news producer at the BBC and TVNZ, as well as web editor for Time Inc UK. He has produced TV news and entertainment features on personalities as diverse as Nick Cave, Tom Hardy, Clive James, Jodie Marsh and Kevin Bacon and he co-produced and directed The Ponds, which has screened in UK cinemas, BBC Four and is currently available on Netflix. 


An entertainment writer with a diverse taste in TV and film, he lists Seinfeld, The Sopranos, The Chase, The Thick of It and Detectorists among his favourite shows, but steers well clear of most sci-fi.