On Wednesday, a report determining the causes of the 2018 helicopter crash that killed Leicester owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four other people has just been released by investigators.
Almost five years later, we learn that it was a mechanical failure that caused this crash and not pilot error. “I have no idea what is happening,” said the 53-year-old pilot, Eric Swaffer, before the device, a Leonardo AW169, fell from a height of about 130 meters.
Vichai Srivaddhanaprabhan, his employees Nursara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare, the pilot and his partner Izabela Roza Lechowicz, were all killed in the accident, which occurred just after the billionaire’s famous helicopter took off from Leicester City airfield on October 27, 2018. Eric Swaffer is an experienced pilot, he “took the most appropriate measures” but was unable to regain control of the aircraft, the report from the British Investigation Bureau (AAIB) concluded. He would have tried in particular before the crash “to cushion the impact”. Maneuver that he more or less succeeded since four of the five people on board survived the shock and died in the fire that followed.
The impact “damaged the helicopter’s lower fuselage and fuel tanks, resulting in a major leak before the aircraft burst into flames,” the report concluded. This tragic fact happened about an hour after a Premier League game between Leicester City and West Ham United at the King Power Stadium, where Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha used to fly from when he attended a home game .
The police investigation made it possible to understand that the problem came from the device and not from the pilot. The pedals disconnected from the helicopter’s tail rotor, causing a rapid right turn that was “impossible” to control. The failure of the control system was caused by the failure of a rotor bearing. No obvious error even in the control of the aircraft, since the bearing inspection was required after 400 hours of use and the helicopter had only 331 flying hours at the time of the accident.
Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was 60 when he died, he was the fifth richest man in Thailand, with a fortune estimated in 2016 at nearly three billion dollars. He bought the Leicester City club for around 40 million pounds in 2010, at the time no one was betting on this English club which played in the second division. He achieved one of the most memorable feats in history when he won the Premier League in 2016, two years after returning to the top flight.
