The helicopter crash that killed Leicester City chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four other passengers was ruled a “tragic accident” by investigators.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) study, which took five years to prepare, revealed that the cause of the crash was mechanical failure caused by a seized tail rotor bearing.
The disaster was regarded as “inevitable” because the bearing failure triggered a steep right turn and the aircraft spun out of control. Pilot Eric Swaffer was absolved of any faults after he could do “very little” to avert the catastrophe.
According to the BBC, the voice recordings from the aircraft revealed the pilot’s final comments before the helicopter crashed. “I’ve got no idea what’s going on,” he yelled as the plane tumbled to the ground and landed on a concrete step.
Mr Swaffer’s spouse, Izabela Roza Lechowicz, an experienced pilot herself, died in the incident, as did Nusara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare, both employees of Mr Srivaddhanaprabha.
According to the report, four of the five passengers survived the initial crash but not the ensuing fire that devoured the wreckage in under a minute.
Chief inspector of air accidents Crispin Orr confirmed in a statement that the crash was an accident and offered his condolences to those affected.
“This was a tragic accident in which five people sadly lost their lives. Our thoughts are with their loved ones, and everyone affected,” he said. “The nature of the failure, in the tail rotor, was really very serious, of a sort that left them in a very poor situation. There was nothing more that the pilot could do.”
Mr Srivaddhanaprabha bought Leicester in 2010 for a reported fee of £38 million and became a legend within the city after overseeing a fairy-tale Premier League triumph in 2016.