Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha: Leonardo denies responsibility for Leicester City owner’s fatal helicopter crash
Aircraft manufacturer Leonardo denied responsibility for the helicopter crash that killed Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and stated that the AW169 model was safe.
The family of Srivaddhanaprabha, the Thai businessman who founded duty-free retailer King Power, is suing Leonardo for £2.15 billion ($2.89 billion) in London’s High Court over the accident.
Best known as the owner of the club that defied 5,000/1 odds to win the Premier League in 2016, Srivaddhanaprabha’s helicopter crashed shortly after taking off outside Leicester City’s King Power stadium before bursting into flames on October 27, 2018.
In January, an inquest jury concluded that the deaths of Srivaddhanaprabha, two members of his crew, pilot Eric Swaffer and Swaffer’s partner Izabela Roza Lechowicz were accidental.
Srivaddhanaprabha’s widow and four children filed the lawsuit in January, claiming lost earnings and other damages. The family’s lawyers declined to comment on Leonardo’s defense.
In its written defense, made public last week, Leonardo said it bore no responsibility for the incident, which was “the first and only accident involving the AW169” and that no regulatory authority considered the model’s flying unsafe.
It was also stated that Srivaddhanaprabha would probably survive if the pilot made a controlled landing to prevent the helicopter from catching fire.
In its defense dated December 1, the company said, “Although Leonardo has great sympathy for the Srivaddhanaprabha family, Leonardo does not consider that the allegations made against him are neither factual nor based on law.” he said.
Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said in a 2023 report that the pilot was unlikely to survive the tail rotor failure.
Leonardo said it objected to the report and that the company was not given any safety advice.
