Helicopter crash investigation delays a 'disgrace'

(L-R): Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, Kaveporn Punpare, Nusara Suknamai, Izabela Roza Lechowicz and Eric Swaffer were killed in the crash

Delays investigating the fatal Leicester City helicopter crash were a “national disgrace”, a coroner has been told.

Club chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four other people died in the crash outside the King Power Stadium on 27 October 2018.

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch’s (AAIB) final report on the accident was published last September.

An inquest is now not expected to begin until early in 2025.

Mr Vichai (second left) regularly travelled to and from the ground in either of his two helicopters

At a pre-inquest review on Thursday, Philip Shepherd, who is representing Mr Vichai’s family, said delays in completing the AAIB’s investigation had made relatives’ suffering “immeasurably worse”.

“My clients had before them the greatest tragedy of their lives and it is not over by a long shot,” he said.

“Families of those who have lost their lives cannot get anywhere near to closure until the investigation is completed and the inquest is held.

“Those I represent have had to live with the anguish of that terrible night knowing finality has not been brought to them, by this inquest, year after year”

The helicopter’s pilots, Eric Swaffer and Izabela Roza Lechowicz, and two members of Mr Vichai’s staff – Nusara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare – were also killed in the crash.

Tributes were left outside the stadium in the immediate aftermath of the crash

Mr Shepherd told the hearing, at City Hall in Leicester: “The latent factor here has been the fact that the final AAIB report into this extremely serious incident, that took the lives of five good people, took one month short of five years.

“The delay was a national disgrace.”

He told the hearing the crash had been of “world-wide interest” and the investigation had been “dragged out”.

The public as well as the victims’ families deserved to know why, he said.

Mr Shepherd told coroner Prof Catherine Mason the victims’ families did not blame the inquest process for the delay.

The helicopter took off from the centre of the pitch and crashed near the ground

David Manknell, representing the AAIB, told the hearing: “The AAIB regrets, as does everyone, the time it has taken for the reports to be completed.”

However, he said that while speed was appropriate in the investigation “it was more important that proper processes were followed and reached the correct result”.

When the report final report was published, it concluded a tail rotor bearing seized, which in turn caused the helicopter to crash.

The AAIB found the crash was “inevitable” after a sequence of mechanical failures and said there was “very little” Mr Swaffer, who was at the controls, could have done to prevent it.

The AW169 helicopter crashed shortly after this photograph was taken

Representatives of a number of “interested parties” attended Thursday’s hearing including the helicopter’s manufacturer, Italian firm Leonardo, and the football club.

They made representations to the coroner about what evidence they felt she should consider and the scope of her upcoming inquiry.

They were told the inquest would likely last two to three weeks and would be held in front of a jury.

Prof Mason passed on her condolences to those who had died.

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