News of Leicester owners helicopter crashing by the King Power stadium. Seem like good owners and I hope everyone is ok.
Just seen the news. Whoever was on there, unfortunately isn't surviving. Apparently the tail rotor was malfunctioning. The Leicester hierachy seemed like really decent people, too. @FosseFilberto any idea who usually boards the copter after games, mate?
I wonder if it was a BAE Systems chopper (no not that BAE), we had a brand new one on the mine with less than 20 hours on it, someone had forgotten to put a split pin in the tail rotor which holds a locking nut on. Same issue, the tail rotor came loose and it went down. Fortunately the pilot was ex South African Airforce and trained in crash landings. All the guys on board survived, a few bruises but no more. I hope similar can be said of this crash.
Reuters have just said the Lesta owner, his two daughters , the pilot and one other unnamed person were on board. I've now seen the photos, big fire, why the hell didn't the pilot ditch the fuel when he knew he was going down.
Obviously the crash is horrific, and you’d expect the worst, but has it actually been confirmed that there was no survivors? The last sky news video I saw said “we have no details of the condition of the people who were on board of that helicopter”.
Realistically I can't see anyone surviving that, won't pretend to know anything about copter crashes but I'd say the impact alone would've probably killed most on board, then what with the explosion... Well you'd essentially be surviving two fatal accidents in quick succession. I suspect the only reason why we're just finding out who - or more to the point how many - were on board is due to the emergency crews now being able to access the wreckage and being able to determine who was there. Fair to say yesterday was a dark day for football, Hoddle being hospitalised, Brighton fan passing before the game and then this.
They said 'it is reported that there were no survivors'. So they are quoting someone else. However, if the passengers were in hospital, someone would have said that by now, so I guess its fair to expect the worst.
I fly a lot in helicopters, some times two or three times a week. Generally, the front seats have a four point racing style harness, which in the event of an accident should keep one in the seat pretty safe. The rear seat belts are exactly the opposite, two belts for four people (two people share one belt) and in the case of an accident they would probably cut you in half. To make it worse, if you were in the rear and survive the impact, it is almost impossible to open the doors from the rear. You would need to people in the front seats to open them, so in the event of fire, you would probably burn to death.
All I can think is that the explosion must have taken place in the air, because the pilot would have immediately ditched the fuel if he knew he was going down. If there were two pilots on board, at least one of them would have had enough sense to get rid of the fuel. If they were flying to London from Leicester they would have had 50-60 gallons on board.
According to the eye witness accounts the explosion happened on the ground. A policeman was trying to smash open the window/door when it burst into flames. There wouldn't have been time to ditch as it happened within seconds of taking off and the pilot was trying to steer away from populated areas. There were also reports of Kasper Shcmeichel running towards the crash site. It is telling that no player has been interviewed.
The deaths of the five people on board including the chairman now confirmed. Very sad - he was one of football's good guys.
I spoke with our helicopter pilot today and apparently there is no facility to jettison fuel on most helicopters, absolute madness. They should be looking at F1 racing and bring in some of the safety measures adopted there after the Piers Courage/Niki Lauda incidents.
