Helicopter crash that killed Leicester owner was accidental, inquest finds
Helicopter crash that killed Leicester owner was accidental, inquest finds
The deaths of five people in a helicopter crash at the King Power Stadium in October 2018, including Leicester City football club owner Khun Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, were accidental, an inquest jury concluded on Tuesday.
Vichai, the Thai tycoon who pumped millions of pounds into the club that famously won the Premier League title in 2015-16, was killed along with four others when his helicopter crashed in the club’s car park and exploded after a match on October 27, 2018.
The Leonardo AW169 helicopter had cleared the top of the stadium before starting to spin, and plummeted to the ground before bursting into flames.
The crash also killed pilot Eric Swaffer, his partner Izabela Lechowicz, and Vichai’s staff members Nusara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punparev. The inquest lasted two-and-a-half weeks.
Philip Shepherd, the Vichai family’s legal representative, said Swaffer was a “highly competent and very experienced pilot who did everything in his power” to control the helicopter when the tail rotor failed shortly after takeoff.
Vichai’s family are actively continuing their legal action against Italian defence company Leonardo, the manufacturer of the helicopter.
They are seeking compensation for loss of earnings and other damages, valued at 2.15 billion pounds ($2.67 billion) — the largest fatal accident claim in English legal history.
According to Forbes magazine, Vichai was the fifth-richest person in Thailand at the time of his death with an estimated net worth of $4.9 billion.
Leonardo was not immediately available for comment but said this month that it would defend itself against the High Court claim.
It expressed its deepest sympathy for the victims of the crash, saying their deaths were “an unquestionable tragedy”.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) ruled in 2023 that it was not possible for the pilot to recover from the tail rotor failure.
The pilot had managed to land softly enough for four of the five people on board to survive the impact, according to post-mortem examinations, only for them to be killed by fire.
Investigators found that problems with the bearing in the tail rotor of the helicopter began a sequence of failures leading to the crash.
