The tragic Leicester City helicopter crash that claimed the lives of five people took just 12 minutes to play out from take-off, a coroner’s court heard today. The incident, which happened in October 2018, killed Leicester City chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, alongside fellow passengers Nusara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare, pilot Eric Swaffer and his partner, Izabela Roza Lechowicz.
An inquest into the deaths began in Leicester today (Monday, January 13), with an 11-member jury sworn in. Proceedings started with tributes from the families of the deceased.
Members of the jury then heard from Mark Jarvis, principal inspector for the government’s Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB), which investigated the circumstances surrounding the crash. Mr Jarvis set out the timeline of the tragedy for the court.
READ MORE: Tributes to Leicester City helicopter crash victims as inquest begins
The helicopter involved in the tragedy was the one which had been used to fly Khun Vichai to Leicester City’s training ground earlier that day. It then flew from the training ground to King Power Stadium around 45 minutes prior to its fatal final flight, the court heard.
It was scheduled to take Khun Vichai to Stansted airport after City’s match, from where he would continue on to Thailand.
The helicopter had just 330 flying hours on its clock, Mr Jarvis said. He described that as being “very early” in the vehicle’s life, over the course of which he said he would expect it to do around 12,000 hours.
Timeline of the fatal final flight
- 20:37pm – the helicopter takes off from the pitch at King Power Stadium, moving forward towards the centre of the pitch before lifting into the air. A video taken by fans shows the helicopter rising out of the stadium, before attempting to make a right turn. The helicopter begins to spin out of control, with voices on the video starting to swear as they realise something has gone wrong.
- 20:37:57 – the helicopter falls towards the road
- 20:37:58 – the helicopter crashes on an empty space between car parks B and E outside King Power Stadium. It skids until it hits a concrete step, which stops it.
- 20:38:21 – the first police officers arrive on the scene, having been driving by the stadium in Raw Dykes Road
- 20:38:35 – a fire has already begun, with leaking fuel causing it to “start very rapidly” and progress “very quickly”
- 20:39:55 – one of the officers, Pc Hooper, tries to break into the cockpit of the helicopter with his police baton. The glass is specially designed to stop it breaking if it is hit by a bird at high speeds, the court is told. As such, specialist equipment would have been needed to shatter it.
- 20:40:08 – Pc Hooper returns to his police vehicle for a fire extinguisher
- 20:40:40 – Pc Hooper goes back to the helicopter with the extinguisher
- 20:40:46 – an “intense”, “fuel fed” fire can be seen around the helicopter
- 20:41:11 – the fire is described by Mr Jarvis as being “extreme” at this stage. He said an extinguisher would not have been able to “do anything to it”. The heat would have been “intense enough to force people back”.
- 20:44:44 – two fire appliances approach the crash site
- 20:49:28 – the flames have been put out and there is no longer any “evidence of live fire”
Members of the jury are expected to hear more from the AAIB regarding their findings later in the two-to-three week case. A report published by the body in September 2023 found the disaster was caused by a 5cm bearing which had fallen apart, causing the tail rotor to turn out of control.
The aircraft spun around fives time as it hurtled into the ground. Human error was ruled out by investigators, who revealed pilot Eric Swaffer did all he could to try to prevent loss of life. The inquest continues.