LONDON, Jan 14 — Mechanical failure caused a helicopter containing the owner of Leicester football club to crash in a fatal incident, the opening day of an inquest was told yesterday.
Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four others died when the Thai billionaire’s personal helicopter crashed shortly after taking off from the Premier League team’s King Power Stadium following a match in October 2018.
An inquest at Leicester City Hall is also examining the deaths of the aircraft’s pilot, Eric Swaffer, his partner Izabela Lechowicz, and passengers Nusara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare, who were also killed in the crash.
Mark Jarvis, the principle inspector at Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch, told the inquest a duplex bearing on the tail rotor became “seized and locked” before the helicopter crashed and burst into flames.
“Our conclusion was that the pilot had done everything in his power to try to avoid and correct the situation he found himself in,” said Jarvis.
He added: “The helicopter was out of control. The only control the pilot had was on the rate of descent of the helicopter during extremely disorientating conditions.
“The pilot took quick action and took the only actions he could do and continued to try and take those actions. The pilot did everything possibly expected of him.”
In a tribute read to the court by the lawyer for Srivaddhanaprabha’s family, he was described as “a good man with a good heart”.
“We miss him every day,” the family said. “The pain his death caused and continues to cause our family is immeasurable.”
The family statement also paid tribute to his role in reviving Leicester’s fortunes and bankrolling their shock Premier League title triumph in 2016 after the club were 5,000/1 rank outsiders to be crowned champions at the start of that season.
Catherine Mason, the coroner presiding over the hearing, had told the jury earlier yesterday that the role of an inquest in English law is simply to determine the facts over how someone died, rather than make rulings on individual guilt or innocence.
“Nobody is on trial here,” she said.
“An inquest does not decide matters of criminal or civil liability,” added Mason, who also said the hearing was expected to last for between two and three weeks.
In a separate development, the family of Srivaddhanaprabha announced last week they had launched a £2.15 billion ($2.63 billion) legal action against the manufacturers of the helicopter, in what is reported to be the largest fatal accident claim in English history. — AFP
