Leicester helicopter crash was accidental, inquest jury told

The jury has retired so that the inquiry into the deaths of five people who were killed in a helicopter crash outside Leicester City’s King Power Stadium can begin its proceedings.

On October 27, 2018, Foxes chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was killed along with fellow passengers Kaveporn Punpare, Nusara Suknamai, pilot Eric Swaffer, and his partner Izabela Roza Lechowicz.

On Monday, coroner Catherine Mason addressed the jury as the inquest entered a third week at Leicester’s City Hall.

She remarked, “The helicopter crash was a terrible tragedy that resulted in the deaths of five people.

These extraordinary people will miss you dearly and be greatly missed.

“This hearing is to explain how they came to pass away,” the statement read.

She told the 11 jurors that they will answer four questions. Who was each deceased person? When did they die? Where did they die? And, how did they come by their death?

The deceased’s identities and the deceased’s medical cause were not in dispute, according to the coroner.

Pathologist Dr Michael Biggs carried out post-mortem examinations on each of the five who died, and told the inquest previously that Ms Lechowicz died from injuries sustained from the impact of the crash.

He added that the fire that broke out after the helicopter crashed outside the stadium and caused the other four passengers to pass away “quite quickly” from smoke inhalation from the fire that broke out after the Foxes’ 1-1 draw with West Ham United.

Additionally, Prof. Mason instructed the jury that the jury’s conclusions regarding the five deaths’ locations, when, and how could not legally contest the Air Accidents Investigation Branch’s (AAIB) findings.

An AAIB report, published in September 2023, found the crash was “inevitable” after a bearing failed setting in motion a sequence of mechanical failures shortly after take-off from the centre circle.

The pilot made an effort to save everyone on board, according to the jury, and the report made it abundantly clear that there was no wrong with the report.