A crane driver is counting his lucky stars today after a helicopter crashed into his cabin in London, but he was not there because, for the first time, he was late for work.

A colleague, van driver Paul Robinson, 42, said the crane driver would have been "wiped out" if he had been on time this morning.

Instead, he was still climbing up the crane's shaft when disaster struck.

Site workers said the crane driver, who has not been identified, had never been late before.

He is understood to have been held up while dropping his children at school.

Mr Robinson said: "He was halfway up to his cabin, he was making his way up by ladders when the helicopter hit.

"He would have been wiped out if he had been on time.

"It was a very lucky escape. He would have been killed if he had already been in position."

The crane operator, who had been harnessed to the structure, is now understood to be recovering from his ordeal.

Mr Robinson said he was waiting in a queue to drive a van into the site when the crash happened.

As debris fell from the sky and hit the back of his lorry, he leapt out, believing another driver had bumped into him.

But as he looked up, he saw a "ball of fire".

He added: "I just ran. I panicked. My mind went blank and fuzzy.

"There was a ball of fire and someone said the helicopter had come down and hit the crane.

"It was terrifying."

Mr Robinson said he visited the site several times a week to collect waste.