ONE of Britain's longest-running soap operas has courted controversy by announcing it will feature a storyline where a helicopter crashes into a pub.

In scenes reminiscent of the Clutha tragedy which will provoke painful memories for many Glaswegians, an episode of Emmerdale will include the dramatic incident when it airs on Monday.

The show's producers said they had considered the Clutha accident when formulating the storyline, but decided their events were sufficiently different.

Ten people were killed when the Police Scotland helicopter fell through the roof of the city pub in November 2013, killing 10 people and injuring several others.

The ITV soap's helicopter crash happens during characters Pete Barton and Debbie Dingle's wedding day. It injures several guests and kills off at least one major cast member.

Ian O'Prey, father of Mark O'Prey who died in the Clutha crash, said the scenes to be featured on TV reminded him of the tragedy, but that he already struggled with his own memories of losing his son.

He said: "There are so many things that remind us of the crash and this is just another one of those things. I suppose you can't censure everything, you can't run away from it."

Producer of the ITV soap Kate Oates defended the helicopter plot, saying that : "I think editorially, whenever you're looking at any potential disaster scenario you have to consider it very carefully.

"We were really, really careful to make it clear what the cause of the accident is. It's set up over a scrapyard, over a marital dispute, where a gas canister explodes and it's a chain of events.

"It was something that we considered because obviously our intention is always to entertain people, to give them a good story, to thrill them, to upset them in certain kinds of ways sometimes, but it would never be our intention to mimic something like that.

"So we kept it very deliberately far apart. It's not something we were concerned about because we made the decision very carefully."

The soap has previously been accused of milking tragedy to boost its ratings, particularly when it featured a plotline where an plane crashed on the village, killing many characters.

The storyline ran five years after the December 1988 Lockerbie disaster, and was screened shortly after the anniversary.

Some viewers criticised the show for being insensitive and disrespectful to the people of Lockerbie, but the episode has gone down in TV folklore and is credited with saving the soap from being axed.

Ms Oates said that she hoped the latest dramatic storyline would have a similar effect. She said: "I think it's the nature of soap viewers now to compare it not just to the plane crash of '93, but with the tram crash in Corrie and the siege for us. It's apples and oranges really, because they're very different stories.

"Any comparison is welcome because that was an iconic moment of Emmerdale history and that's great.

"But this is very different, the show is so different and it's evolved. I'm sure people will compare, but they're very different and hopefully when people watch the episodes, they'll forget about other soap disasters and just become involved with the story. That's all I want."

The scenes will air from Monday.