An AgustaWestland AW169 helicopter crashed soon after take-off from King Power Stadium, home crunch of Leicester City F.C. in Leicester, England on 27 October 2018. All people on board – the navigate and four passengers, including golf club owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha – were killed in the crash. [ 3 ] The Air Accidents Investigation Branch attributed the crash to a loss of yaw control owing to a failure of the buttocks rotor control linkage. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] [ 6 ]
history of the escape [edit ]
Vichai frequently travelled to and from Leicester City ‘s matches at the King Power Stadium in the helicopter, with the Leicester Mercury describing it as “ a conversant sight for Foxes fans. ” [ 7 ] On 27 October, the helicopter departed Fairoaks Airport in Surrey with the original and his girlfriend on board. [ 8 ] It stopped at London Heliport to collect three extra passengers – Srivaddhanaprabha and two members of his staff – before departing at 14:43 BST ( 13:43 UTC ). It arrived at the Leicester City Football Club Training Ground on Belvoir Drive, 1.5 miles ( 2 kilometer ) south of the King Power Stadium at 15:58 BST ( 14:58 UTC ). [ 9 ] All on board disembarked and traveled by car to the stadium for Leicester ‘s game against West Ham United. The original and his girlfriend returned after the football match concluded and then, as was common, flew the helicopter to the stadium to collect Srivaddhanaprabha and his two staff members. [ 10 ] The helicopter was seen preparing to lift off from the peddle live on BT Sport, during a post-match circulate. [ 11 ] By this item, the coach carrying the West Ham team had departed, [ 12 ] but some Leicester City staff and players were placid in the stadium, while there remain fans of both clubs in areas outside. [ 13 ]
The aircraft was due to fly to Luton Airport. [ 14 ]
accident [edit ]
| Nation | Deaths |
|---|---|
 |
3 |
 |
1 |
 |
1 |
| Total | 5 |
With Vichai, the fender and three early people on board, [ 15 ] the helicopter took off from within the stadium at approximately 20:37 BST ( 19:37 UTC ). [ 16 ] As the pilot program turned the helicopter towards its en-route bearing, the dock rotor manipulate linkage broke, sending the helicopter into an uncontrollable tailspin. [ 17 ] [ 16 ] [ 12 ] [ 18 ] One witness described the aircraft falling “ like a rock to the floor ”. [ 19 ] It struck the labor in stadium Car Park E, about 200 metres ( 220 yd ) from the stadium, and burst into flames. [ 17 ] Two police officers and club staff leaving the stadium attempted to rescue those in the helicopter but had to retreat due to the heat and flames. [ 17 ] Investigators ruled out a suggestion of a collision with a police drone as a potential induce. [ 20 ] The postdate day, Leicestershire Police confirmed that everybody on display panel had been killed in the crash and subsequent displace, and named the five fatalities. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] They were three Thais : baseball club owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and two members of his staff – Kaveporn Punpare and Nusara Suknamai, British fly Eric Swaffer, and his polish girlfriend, Izabela Roza Lechowicz. A small memorial has been erected at East Sheen Cemetery for these two pilots. There were no casualties elsewhere. [ citation needed ] Two police officers, Michael Hooper and Stephen Quartermain, suffered burns and pot inhalant attempting to rescue the occupants, and subsequently were nominated for a national patrol courage award arsenic good as receiving Queen ‘s Gallantry Medals. [ 21 ]
aircraft [edit ]
The aircraft involved in the accident was an AgustaWestland AW169 helicopter, registration G-VSKP, [ 12 ] c/n 69018, manufactured in 2016. [ 22 ] It seated 10 people and weighed roughly 4,500 kilograms ( 9,900 pound ). [ 23 ] It was powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW210A engines. [ 24 ] The aircraft was owned by Foxborough and operated by Amadeus Aviation. This was the first crash and hull loss involving the AW169. [ 25 ]
probe [edit ]
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch ( AAIB ) opened an probe into the accident. [ 12 ] Italy ‘s Agenzia Nazionale per louisiana Sicurezza del Volo, representing the country of the manufacturer of the helicopter, and Canada ‘s Transportation Safety Board, representing the state of the manufacturer of the helicopter ‘s engines, provided aid. Accredited representatives from Poland ‘s State Commission on Aircraft Accidents Investigation and Thailand ‘s Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee besides provided aid. [ 16 ] The aircraft ‘s Digital Flight Data Recorder was recovered on 28 October, having been hard damaged in the fire. It was transported to the AAIB ‘s base at Farnborough, Hampshire, for download of data contained therein. [ 26 ] The wreckage of the helicopter was transported to Farnborough on 2 November. [ 27 ] A coroner ‘s court was created to investigate the official cause of death for the passengers and gang of the helicopter. The probe reported in the court revealed that there was minimal opportunity for any individuals who survived the initial crash to escape, or anyone to help those trapped. [ 28 ] On 7 November, the european Aviation Safety Agency ( EASA ) issued an Airworthiness Directive, [ 18 ] demanding checks of the tails of all AgustaWestland AW169 and AgustaWestland AW189 helicopters, as a precautionary quantify. [ 29 ] [ 16 ] On 14 November, the AAIB released a special Bulletin, outlining the build up of the investigation. A loss of yaw control was revealed as the lawsuit of the aircraft crash, with the reasons for the loss of yaw see not yet determined. On 30 November, the EASA issued an Emergency Alert Service Bulletin requiring periodic inspection of part of the tail rotor arrangement. This was made mandatary by an Airworthiness Directive issued the same day. [ 18 ] On 6 December 2018, the AAIB published a second Special Bulletin. [ 18 ] Investigators revealed that loss of control of the helicopter resulted from the buttocks rotor actuator control shaft ( which controls the pitch of the buttocks rotor blades ) becoming disconnected from the actuator lever mechanism that transmits the pilots ‘ pedal inputs to control the helicopter ‘s yaw. They have besides revealed attest of the normally stationary dominance cheat being spun by the tail rotor which caused the embattled en holding the actuator lever in place to friction weld to its carrier wave, shear off its split pin and rotate off the thread shaft. The locking nut and pin carrier were found loose in the tail rotor fair and were bonded together. A duplex bearing that was designed to allow the control beam to remain stationary ( with the rest of the tail rotor assembly rotating around it ) was found to only allow a few degrees of rotation, with the races blocked up by a mix of burned grease and metallic particles. AAIB Chief Inspector Crispin Orr stated on the third base anniversary 27 October 2021 that the building complex investigation is continuing and a final report will be published when their work is dispatch. [ 30 ]
Responses [edit ]
Fans began to lay flowers and football shirts outside the crunch the next morning. Shirts and scarves were besides seen from other teams including West Ham United, Leicester City ‘s opponent in the match prior to the crash. [ 31 ] On 30 October, Leicester City opened a bible of condolence, with an on-line version besides available. In the contiguous consequence of the accident, some buildings were floodlit in blue as a tribute to the victims, including England ‘s home stadium, Wembley. [ 32 ] [ 33 ]
Read more: Willem Dafoe
The Leicester City Foxes Foundation Charity was renamed The Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha Foundation in award of the die president and owner. [ 34 ] On 10 November Leicester City fans took separate in a ‘5,000-1 ‘ walk in united remembrance of the helicopter crash victims. Thousands of fans took character in the memorial walk before Leicester City played Burnley at home. The initial invoke was for 5,000 fans to take separate, though reports suggested the phone number was about 10,000. [ 35 ] [ 36 ] Leicester City established a memorial garden on the site of the crash. [ 37 ]
The 2018–19 FA Women ‘s Championship catch between Leicester City and Manchester United, scheduled for the day after the crash, was postponed out of regard for the victims. [ 38 ] The women ‘s reserve league equal against Derby County was besides postponed. [ 39 ] Leicester City ‘s 2018–19 EFL Cup fastness against Southampton, which had been scheduled to take place at the King Power Stadium on 30 October 2018, and the 2018–19 Premier League International Cup regular between Leicester City U-23s and Feyenoord Academy, were besides subsequently postponed. [ 40 ] [ 41 ] The 2018–19 Belgian First Division B fixture between Oud-Heverlee Leuven, the moment club owned by Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, and Lommel, originally scheduled for 31 October, was besides postponed. [ 42 ] [ 43 ] At the early Premier League football fixtures on Sunday, players wore black armbands, both for the crash victims and for Remembrance Day, though a few days earlier than Remembrance armbands are normally worn. [ 44 ] The NFL London serial match between the Philadelphia Eagles and Jacksonville Jaguars taking home at Wembley stadium the adjacent day included a pre-game tribute in memory of both the Leicester crash and the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting which occurred on the same day. [ 45 ]
litigation [edit ]
On 26 October 2021, the families of the pilots launched a legal casing at the District Court of Massachusetts in the United States, suing Raytheon for damages. The plaintiffs allege that Raytheon “ negligently designed, manufactured, assembled and sold the Tail Rotor Actuator such that the Accident Aircraft ‘s Tail Rotor Actuator restraint spear was subject to disjunction from the actuator lever mechanism ”. [ 46 ]
See besides [edit ]
- Matthew Harding – Chelsea F.C. investor killed in a helicopter crash returning from a football match in October 1996.