On 28 January, the jury reached their conclusion into the tragic deaths of those onboard the Leonardo AW169 helicopter which crashed at Leicester City Football Club more than six years ago, on 27 October 2018.

Khun Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha (Chairman of LCFC and CEO of King Power Group), along with pilots Eric Swaffer, Eric’s partner Izabela Lechowicz, and passengers Nusara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punparev all lost their lives when their helicopter spun out of control and burst into flames, crashing as it was leaving the King Power Stadium in Leicester after a match.

The inquest verdict

The inquest, led by Senior Coroner Professor Catherine Mason, confirmed this devastating event was an accident waiting to happen.

During a 3-week inquest, the Coroner and a jury heard that the helicopter was still new, was properly maintained, it met the minimum certification standards, and there was no pilot error whatsoever – Eric was a highly competent pilot. Once the helicopter started to fail he did everything in his power to try to avoid the fatal crash.

The cause of the crash lay in the design of the helicopter. Leonardo’s design documents show it was built to fail; a crash was inevitable. It was simply a matter of when. The inquest heard that Leonardo got the “when” badly wrong.

Leonardo’s failure to act was based on a dangerously flawed assumption. They calculated the risk of the bearing failing as one in a billion and relied solely on this probability to justify their inaction. Tragically, the bearing failed after just 330 hours of use, in just over 10% of its expected lifespan of 2,400 hours. During the investigation, the AAIB found three other bearings also on the way to failure well before their recommended life.

Evidence presented in the inquest showed that when it failed, the design meant that it was inevitable that a control shaft connecting the pilot’s controls to the tail rotor would unwind, driving the tail rotor blades into an extreme position and uncontrollably accelerating the spin of the helicopter. There was a design, used by Leonardo on another of their helicopters that would have prevented this outcome. For an unexplained reason, they did not use it on this helicopter.

When they set out in design documents how it could fail, they acknowledged that the design had a single point of failure and yet believed it more likely that a metal rod would tear apart than it would simply unwind from the nut to which it was attached at that point of failure. When selecting the bearing that was at the origin of this catastrophic cascade of failures, they chose not to pass on important test flight data to the manufacturer of the bearing, data relating to the forces actually experienced in flight for the bearing manufacturer to validate its bearing design from actual flight data. While Leonardo was not explicitly required to share flight data, the regulator stated that this practice was implicit within the existing regulations.

Leonardo had identified this bearing as a critical component in its design documents, recognising that its failure could cause the loss of the aircraft and everyone onboard. Despite this, the company chose not to implement basic mitigation measures.

The deaths of Khun Vichai, Eric Swaffer, Izabela Lechowicz, Nusara Suknamai, and Kaveporn Punpare were wholly unnecessary. They were failed by a design that prioritised flawed calculations over fundamental safety precautions.

Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s family are actively continuing their legal action against Leonardo and seeking compensation for the loss of earnings and other damages, valued at £2.15 billion. It is the largest fatal accident claim in English history.

Leicester City Football Club and the families of those who lost their lives will continue to honour their memory.

The inquest heard that it was just a matter of time before something catastrophic occurred – it was an accident waiting to happen.

The families’ response

Khun Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, the son of Khun Vichai said the following:

“My father trusted in the design of this helicopter. It was Leonardo’s responsibility to make sure the helicopter was safe. It wasn’t safe. It was a death trap.

“My family are thankful to Senior Coroner Mason for her inquest which has shone a spotlight on what happened on 27 October 2018.

“The leader of our family, a caring and devoted husband, father and grandfather, we feel my father’s loss every day. A one-of-a-kind, investor in dreams, it is impossible to put my father into words. Thank you, Leicester, for your outpouring support. We miss him and feel his loss every day. “

Kate Lechowicz, the sister of Izabela said the following: 

“Eric and my sister, Izabela were extraordinary and dedicated individuals with a passion for life and aviation safety, cherished by their family and friends.

“Not only would Eric want to ensure that changes are made to prevent a similar accident from happening again, he would also have been grateful for the depth and detail into which the AAIB investigation and this inquest has gone.

“We would like to extend our thanks to Senior Coroner Mason for that depth of analysis as well as the investigators at the AAIB.

“We take comfort from hearing that there was nothing else that Eric could have done and he did everything within his power to control the helicopter and prevent the loss of life.

“We miss their warmth and care every day. The hole they left behind can never be filled, yet we take comfort in knowing they journey together still.”

 

Stewarts partners Sarah Stewart and Peter Neenan are instructed by the families of Khun Vichai, Eric and Izabela, and instructed Philip Shepherd KC and Bajul Shah as counsel for the family of Khun Vichai.

 


 

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