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The pilot of the helicopter involved in a crash which killed the owner of Leicester City Football Club said: \u201cI\u2019ve no idea what\u2019s going on\u201d as the aircraft was turning out of control.<\/p>\n
Eric Swaffer, 53, made the comment seconds before the helicopter hit the ground outside the club\u2019s King Power Stadium on October 27 2018, a report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) revealed.<\/p>\n
Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, employees Nursara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare, Mr Swaffer and his partner, Izabela Roza Lechowicz \u2013 also a professional pilot \u2013 were all killed in the accident, which happened shortly after the helicopter took off from the pitch.<\/p>\n
The Leonardo AW169 helicopter reached an altitude of approximately 430ft before plummeting to the ground.<\/p>\n
The pilot\u2019s pedals became disconnected from the tail rotor, investigators found.<\/p>\n
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This resulted in the aircraft making a sharp right turn which was \u201cimpossible\u201d to control.<\/p>\n
The AAIB described this as \u201ca catastrophic failure\u201d, causing the helicopter to spin quickly, approximately five times.<\/p>\n
As the helicopter was turning out of control, a shout of: \u201cHey, hey, hey!\u201d came from the rear cabin, where Mr Vichai and his employees were seated, the AAIB said.<\/p>\n
Mr Swaffer, who was a highly experienced pilot, responded by saying: \u201cI\u2019ve no idea what\u2019s going on\u201d and \u201cuttered an exclamation\u201d, according to the report.<\/p>\n
He \u201cperformed the most appropriate actions\u201d which included raising a lever to reduce the helicopter\u2019s pitch angle and \u201ccushion the impact\u201d, the AAIB said.<\/p>\n
The aircraft landed on a concrete step, coming to a rest on its left side.<\/p>\n
Four of the five occupants survived the initial impact, but no-one survived due to the helicopter catching fire within a minute following a major fuel leak.<\/p>\n
The crash occurred around an hour after a Premier League match between Leicester City and West Ham United.<\/p>\n
The AAIB inquiry found that the control system failed because a bearing in the tail rotor broke up due to its ceramic balls sliding rather than rolling, due to a build-up of pressure.<\/p>\n
Asked if this was \u201can accident waiting to happen\u201d, Adrian Cope, AAIB senior inspector for engineering told reporters: \u201cIt was a process which built up continuously.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe damage in that bearing built up over a period of time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Inspection of the bearing was only required once it has been used for 400 hours, but the helicopter had only been flown for 331 hours when the accident happened.<\/p>\n
One of the \u201ccontributory factors\u201d for the crash was that regulations do not require maintenance checks to review the condition of used bearings against their original design, the AAIB said.<\/p>\n
The 209-page report ruled out drone involvement and pilot error.<\/p>\n
The AAIB\u2019s chief inspector of air accidents Crispin Orr said: \u201cThe AAIB has carried out an extensive investigation to establish why the accident happened and how safety can be improved.\u201d<\/p>\n
Authorities from Canada, France, Italy and the US were also involved in the investigation because of where various significant components were manufactured.<\/p>\n
The AAIB made eight safety recommendations to the European Aviation Safety Agency (Easa) \u2013 whose rules for aircraft certification are mirrored by the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK \u2013 to \u201caddress weaknesses or omissions\u201d in regulations for certifying helicopters.<\/p>\n
These deal with the design, validation and monitoring of safety critical components.<\/p>\n
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Other changes were made to the AW169 and AW189 fleets by the manufacturer and Easa as investigators became aware of issues.<\/p>\n
A statue of Mr Vichai was unveiled at the stadium in April last year.<\/p>\n