6 September (Reuters) – The pilot of a helicopter that crashed in 2018, killing Leicester City soccer club’s then-owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, was unable to recover from tail rotor failure, Britain’s aviation accident investigator concluded on Wednesday.
Pilot Eric Swaffer, his partner Izabela Roza Lechowicz, and two Vichai employees, Nusara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare, were also killed in the crash on Oct. 27, 2018, shortly after takeoff outside the King Power Stadium in Leicester, England, following a Premier League match.
The helicopter was yawing erratically and descending swiftly at a low altitude near buildings at night, according to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB). To keep the helicopter from spinning out of control, the tail rotor counteracts the torque of the main rotor.
“The investigation found that, in the prevailing circumstances, the loss of yaw control was irrecoverable,” the AAIB of the United Kingdom said in its final report on the disaster.
Nonetheless, according to post-mortem studies, the pilot managed to land softly enough for four of the five individuals on board to escape the crash, only to be murdered by fire.
“Their reported injuries, however, would have prevented them from escaping from the helicopter without external assistance, given the position in which it came to rest,” according to AAIB.
Leicester City chief executive Susan Whelan said the club welcomed the report’s release “in the hope that it will positively contribute to the continued development of future aviation standards and safety.”
Leicester won the English Premier League in 2016 under the ownership of Thai entrepreneur Vichai, who was well-liked by the club’s supporters.
FUEL LEAKAGE
According to the investigation, the helicopter lay on its left side and its fuel tanks were broken, leading in a huge leak that ignited immediately.
AAIB reported that police officers arrived within a minute but were unable to smash the helicopter’s windscreen with batons and other portable tools while the aircraft burnt. According to the report, the fire killed everyone on board.
The investigators discovered that difficulties with the bearing in the tail rotor of the Leonardo (LDOF.MI) AW169 helicopter started a chain of events that led to the disaster.
According to the article, Leonardo in Italy has since issued 16 service bulletins for the vehicle, including additional inspection requirements.
According to Leonardo, the AW169 is still safe to fly.”More than 150 AW169s continue to operate safely in over 30 countries, logging over 150,000 flight hours to date across the global fleet,” it stated, adding that no grounding or airworthiness limitations had been imposed on the fleet since the accident.
“It is important to note that… the substantial work undertaken in five years of analysis, data gathering, investigation, and tests of the AAIB’s investigation has been able to identify only a ‘likely’ cause of the failure,” the report continued.
Stewarts, the law firm that represents the families of Vichai, Swaffer, and Lechowicz, claimed the study demonstrated that the pilot had no control over the incident.
Stewarts stated that lawsuit against Leonardo had already commenced in Italy on behalf of the families of Swaffer and Lechowicz, and that Vichai’s family was considering legal action as well.
“I am deeply saddened by the course of events,” Aiyawatt, Vichai’s son, said in a statement. “This report, almost five years after my father’s death, contains troubling evidence against Leonardo.”
According to the AAIB research, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) issued nine airworthiness regulations for Leonardo’s AW169 and AW189 models.
In addition, the report made eight further suggestions to EASA, including improvements to its certification standards and the way it analyses and mitigates potential catastrophic failures.
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