Inspectors say it was an accident, the helicopter tragedy that killed Leicester City chairman.
An Air Accidents Investigation Division (AAIB) report, which took five years to complete, it turned out that the cause of the accident was a mechanical defect after a tail rotor bearing (aka the ring that carries the bearings) seized up.
The accident was described as “inevitable” as the course error caused a sharp right turn and the aircraft subsequently lost control. Driver Eric Swaffer could do “very little” to avoid the crash and was cleared of any wrongdoing.
According to the BBC, the helicopter’s voice recordings also revealed the pilot’s last words before the helicopter crashed. “I have no idea what’s going on,” he said shortly before the plane rolled to the ground and landed on a concrete step.
Swaffer’s partner, Izabela Roza Lechowicz, an experienced pilot, was also killed in the crash, along with Nusara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare, two staff members of Srivaddhanaprabha.
The report also found that four of the five passengers survived the initial crash, but not the ensuing fire that engulfed the wreckage in less than a minute.
Chief Inspector Crispin Orr confirmed in a statement that the tragedy was an accident and offered his condolences to those affected.
“This was a tragic accident in which five people unfortunately lost their lives. Our thoughts are with their loved ones and all those affected,” he said. “The nature of the tail rotor failure was really very serious, such that they ended up in a very bad situation. The pilot could do nothing else.”
Srivaddhanaprabha bought Leicester in 2010 for a sum of £38 million and became a legend in the city after overseeing a fairytale conquest in the Premier League in 2016.
Source: Goal