As the helicopter was spinning out of control during the collision that killed the owner of Leicester City Football Club, the pilot exclaimed, “I have no idea what’s going on.”
The statement was made by 53-year-old Eric Swaffer just before the club’s King Power Stadium helicopter crashed on October 27, 2018, according to a report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB). Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, the owner of Leicester City, staffers Nursara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare, Mr. Swaffer, and his partner, professional pilot Izabela Roza Lechowicz, were all killed in the crash, which occurred soon after the helicopter took off from the field. Before crashing to the earth, the Leonardo AW169 helicopter rose to a height of about 430 feet. Investigators discovered that the pedals of the pilot lost contact with the tail rotor.
The airplane thereafter made a fast right turn that was “impossible” to manage.
This “catastrophic failure,” as the AAIB called it, caused the helicopter to rapidly spin five times.
The AAIB reported that Mr. Vichai and his staff were situated in the rear cabin when the helicopter began to spin out of control and shouted, “Hey, hey, hey!”
According to the report, Mr. Swaffer, a very skilled pilot, replied, “I’ve no idea what’s going on,” and “uttered an exclamation.”
According to the AAIB, he “performed the most appropriate actions,” including raising a lever to lower the helicopter’s pitch angle and “cushion the impact.”
The plane touched down on a concrete stairway and came to rest on its left side.
Four of the five occupants made it through the initial impact, but no one survived the subsequent fire that the helicopter quickly caught after a significant fuel leak.
After West Ham United and Leicester City’s Premier League match, the crash happened about an hour later.
According to the AAIB investigation, the control system malfunctioned when a tail rotor bearing broke apart as a result of its ceramic balls sliding rather than rolling under pressure.
Adrian Cope, AAIB senior inspector for engineering, responded when asked if this was “an accident waiting to happen”: “It was a process which built up consistently.
“Over time, the damage in that bearing accumulated.”
The inspection of the bearing was only necessary after 400 hours of operation, yet the accident occurred after only 331 hours of operation.
The lack of laws requiring maintenance checks to compare the state of worn bearings to their original design was one of the “contributory factors” for the crash, according to the AAIB.
The 209-page report excluded pilot mistake and drone involvement.
“The AAIB has carried out an extensive investigation to establish why the accident occurred and how safety can be improved,” said Crispin Orr, the head inspector of air accidents for the AAIB.
Due to the fact that some important components were produced in those countries, authorities from Canada, France, Italy, and the US were also involved in the inquiry.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (Easa), whose criteria for aircraft certification are mirrored by the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK, received eight safety recommendations from the AAIB to “address weaknesses or omissions” in the procedures for certifying helicopters.
Design, validation, and monitoring of safety-critical components are the topics covered by these.
