When I walked out of Vauxhall station this morning wondering what to write in this week’s column, I didn’t expect to be presented with a scene reminiscent of a disaster movie.

Police and fire engines swarmed up and down the street leading to our office, smoke billowed from the pavement I had been expecting to walk along and the skies were filled with the sound of blaring sirens.

This week’s helicopter crash was a huge tragedy for those who lost their lives, but the thought lingers that it could have been so much worse. Had the helicopter fallen a few hundred metres the other way into the busy tube, train and bus interchange, it could have been absolute carnage.

And New Covent Garden Market, part of which has been sectioned off as I write, also escaped with what thankfully appears to be little more than a few cuts and scrapes.

We all talk about being at the mercy of the weather, and this morning was a sobering reminder once again that some things are simply out of our control.