Billionaire’s helicopter in horror crash at football ground
A HELICOPTER belonging to Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha crashed and burst into flames last night outside the King Power stadium following the club’s Premier League game against West Ham.
The identity of the passengers was unclear last night, but there were unconfirmed reports that Mr Srivaddhanaprabha, a Thai billionaire, who bought the club in 2010, was on board.
Images from the scene showed a ball of fire, as the Augusta-Westland AW109 executive helicopter, which can carry up to eight people, came down several hundreds yards from the stadium about 50 minutes after the game.
Many fans had left the area, but it was unclear last night if there were any survivors or if anybody on the ground had been injured.
Eyewitnesses reported that the aircraft crashed in a club car park moments after taking off from the pitch and that emergency services rushed to the scene to tackle the blaze.
Leo Bruka, 27, who lives near the stadium, told The Sunday Telegraph that he saw two police officers attempting to break the glass of the helicopter windows immediately after the crash.
He said: “I saw the helicopter coming down, it was spinning very quickly.
“One of the policeman ran straight to the helicopter and another got out a fire extinguisher. The first policeman was trying to break the window.
“I saw a woman in tears, because I think the helicopter just missed her.”
Kaspar Schmeichel, the Leicester goalkeeper, was reportedly seen in tears. Mr Srivaddhanaprabha, who owns the Thai duty free company King Power, travels to every home game in his helicopter.
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