MIRACLE MORE WEREN’T KILLED
Hero pilot of Leicester carnage steered stricken helicopter away from crowds before fireball claimed five lives
‘Forced back by an explosion’
THE heroic actions of the pilot and policemen involved in the Leicester City helicopter crash were revealed last night.
Eyewitnesses said the pilot prevented greater loss of life by steering the doomed craft away from crowds of football fans.
And two policeman were hailed for their bravery in trying to rescue the passengers and crew before the helicopter exploded.
All five on board died in Saturday evening’s crash. They included Leicester owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, his two pilots and two associates.
The helicopter spiralled out of control moments after it took off from the pitch following a Premier League match at Leicester’s King Power Stadium.
Instead of crashing into the stands and hospitality areas it came down on empty land 200 yards from the stadium before erupting in a fireball.
It avoided busy roads and the last of the 31,000 fans who were still in the area along with dozens of police officers.
Experts suspect the tail rotor failed, sending the £6million AgustaWestland AW169 into a ‘dead man’s curve’ that even the best pilot would not have been able to handle.
Mr Srivaddhanaprabha’s helicopter has in the past been flown by Eric Swaffer, 53, who has posted pictures of the craft on social media. His partner is thought to be flight instructor Izabela Lechowicz, 46. The couple are from Camberley in Surrey.
Last night, neighbours said they feared for the ‘lovely couple’, with one saying he had been trying to contact Mr Swaffer. ‘I know Eric was there yesterday. I didn’t know about Izabela though – she tended to do the longer-haul flights.
‘I don’t want to say much more because the news hasn’t officially been released and we love them to bits.’
The two police officers were spotted running toward the burning wreckage and attempting to smash through the helicopter’s glass windows to pull out survivors, before being forced back by an explosion.
Dan Cox, a Sky Sports News cameraman, described the pilot and police as heroes.
‘I don’t know how the pilot did it but he seemed to manage to slow down the spinning rotation and it drifted off into the corner part of the car park,’ he said.
‘To my mind the pilot was heroic and the two police officers in front of me, who also tried to help, they are heroes too. It could have been so much worse if the pilot hadn’t done that.’
Leicester City season ticket holder Amanda Smith said: ‘The pilot is a hero.
‘How many people were saved by the helicopter landing where it did? Especially when the pilot knew how unlikely it was they would survive.’ The 48-year- old health and safety specialist added: ‘If there was a perfect place to land, that was it – it minimised the risk to life given the busy roads and buildings all around.’
She said she was used to seeing the helicopter fly above her house on home match days.
Joe Birch, 24, a sales assistant, also praised the pilot, saying: ‘If the helicopter had landed anywhere else, there could have been more deaths and serious injuries. The pilot is definitely a hero.’
Mr Birch’s friend Aara Hodges, 21, added: ‘ The pilot did a really good job of keeping the helicopter out of the way of anything on the ground.’
Witnesses reported a ‘ whirring and grinding noise’ and seeing the aircraft spinning out of control seconds after lifting off from the pitch at about 8.30pm following Leicester’s match with West Ham.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch has been called in.
Mr Swaffer, who was born in Lon-
don, has posted a number of pictures from King Power Stadium on his social media accounts and one of him with the Dalai Lama.
He has flown for the Royal Family and for live media broadcasts.
In an interview he once said his most memorable flight was ‘winching an injured person on board a helicopter from a ship 100 miles north of the Shetland Islands, in 70 mph winds and deep swell’.
Miss Lechowicz, has worked as an instructor and has tested many pilots in flight simulators. The couple share a £1.2million seven-bedroom detached home.
A neighbour said: ‘We’re all devastated, they were a great couple. It’s all very raw. They were at the beck and call of their employers.
‘They worked odd hours. I didn’t know they were working together that night to be honest.’
Another neighbour said: ‘ They were a really lovely couple and we’re just all really quite upset.’
Leo Bruka, 27, a Leicester resident, saw the two officers try to help crash survivors.
‘One policeman ran straight away to the helicopter and he was trying to break the window of the helicopter.
‘The other one was inside the car looking for something and then the next minute he had a fire extinguisher trying to prevent the fire. This was all going on for five to ten seconds and then there was an explosion and the policeman and all the three or four other guys that were trying to help but they just pulled back because the fire was going to hot.’
The tragedy is being described as the ‘darkest day’ in Leicester City’s history. Mourners liad wreaths near the stadium yesterday morning.
Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel was reportedly in tears after witnessing the crash and was among those who raced to the scene.
Thousands of supporters flocked to the ground yesterday, laying hundreds of flowers, shirts, and scarves, in tribute to Mr Srivaddhanaprabha and the others on board.
Former England and Leicester manager Sven- Goran Eriksson said Mr Srivaddhanaprabha had had an incredible impact on the club.
Mr Eriksson was the first manager to be hired by the Thai billionaire after he took charge of the club in 2010. And the Swede told BBC Radio Five Live: ‘It’s frightening news.
‘I saw the news, of course, this morning and I still hope it’s not true and he’s alive of course.
‘I knew the whole family and the father. When you know him, as I did, you knew he’s a very, very generous man – to the players, the staff and people working for him – with the fans and the community. He’s an extremely generous man.’
The duty-free billionaire bought the club for £39million in 2010, and became chairman the following February.
The club rose out of the Championship and won the Premier League for the first time in its history in 2015-16, defying odds of 5,000-1.
The 60-year-old was also praised for his charity work, donating £2million towards a new children’s hospital.
It has not yet been revealed whether the officer who got closest to the helicopter sustained any burns or other injuries but he has suffered ‘trauma and shock’, a Leicestershire Police spokesman said.
The spokesman said the officer, who has not been named, was coming to the end of a shift on routine matchday duty at the football ground, and ran towards the helicopter when it crashed.
She said: ‘He went right up to the windows trying to break them, we understand with his baton which he had been carrying as a matter of course. He wanted to help free the passengers.
The helicopter was heading for Luton Airport where Mr Srivaddhanaprabha was planning to catch a flight to Thailand.
Mr Srivaddhanaprabha’s wife and son Aiyawatt, known as Top, who is Leicester’s vice-chairman, flew over from Bangkok yesterday.