The tragic helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Leicester City Football Club chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four others outside the King Power Stadium in 2018 has been directed to be ruled as accidental, a coroner told the jury as the inquest entered its third week at Leicester's City Hall.
Coroner Catherine Mason instructed the jury that only an accidental conclusion could be reached in the deaths of Srivaddhanaprabha, passengers Kaveporn Punpare and Nusara Suknamai, pilot Eric Swaffer, and his partner Izabela Roza Lechowicz. The incident occurred on October 27, 2018, when their helicopter crashed outside the stadium.
"The helicopter crash was a terrible tragedy that cost the lives of five people," Mason stated, adding that "these were remarkable individuals who were greatly loved and will be terribly missed." She emphasized that the purpose of the hearing was "to explain to the world how they came to die."
Pathologist Dr. Michael Biggs, who conducted post-mortem examinations on all five victims, revealed that Ms. Lechowicz died from injuries sustained in the crash impact. The other four occupants, according to his testimony, succumbed "quite rapidly" to smoke inhalation from the fire that erupted following the crash.
The jury was instructed that their conclusions regarding the circumstances of the deaths must align with the findings of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB). A report published by the AAIB in September 2023 determined that the crash was "inevitable" due to a series of mechanical failures, concluding that the pilot could have done "very little" to prevent the tragedy.
The identities of the deceased and the medical causes of their deaths were not disputed during the proceedings, which continue at Leicester's City Hall.
