A HERO helicopter pilot nearly saved Leicester City’s chairman with a miracle landing after the rotor failed - only for a fuel leak to spark a fatal fireball.
Thai billionaire businessman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, 60, was among five killed when the chopper spun out of control while taking off from the King Power Stadium.
Crash investigators described the seizure of the tail rotor’s duplex bearing as a “catastrophic and irrecoverable failure” which caused it to dramatically spiral out of control.
The helicopter spun around five times within 14 seconds as it plummeted perilously over a busy public car park from 430ft, an official report revealed.
Pilot Eric Swaffer, 53, narrowly avoided mass tragedy despite screaming “I’ve no idea what’s going on” while likely startled and disorientated in the dark.
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He managed to perfectly perform every emergency action and even cushioned the blow by expertly pulling the collective control.
But the lower left-hand side of the Leonardo AW169 smashed into a half-metre-high concrete step which caused a significant fuel leak igniting within a minute.
It meant only one passenger is believed to have been killed by impact on October 27, 2018, with four others dying from smoke inhalation as they couldn’t escape in time.
Eric, a "highly experienced pilot with nearly 13,000 flying hours”, is said to have “uttered an exclamation” from the right hand seat next to his co-pilot girlfriend Izabela Lechowicz, 46.
Shouts of “hey, hey, hey” were heard from the back where Vichai was with staff members Nusara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare who were heading to Stansted Airport to fly back to Thailand.
They had been picked up at the Battersea heliport in South London to watch Leicester’s 5.30pm kick off against West Ham.
But the 1-1 draw was marred with heartbreak by 7.37pm when the tail rotor failed as the owner’s chopper started to turn right after climbing to clear the stands.
It caused the back blades to rotate rapidly instead of balancing out the main rotor’s torque once the yaw pedals also disconnected.
David Firth-Wigglesworth, of the Air Accidents Investigation Branch, said: “The tail rotor actuator designed to stabilise effectively reversed and became a destabilising force.”
Foxes fans laid touching tributes outside their home stadium where there is now a statue of the King Power founder who led them to Premier League glory in 2016.
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Harrowing pictures of the mangled helicopter wreck showed the smashed fuel tank which burst into flames as four hero cops hopelessly tried to help.
Other images showed the “badly damaged” 47mm duplex bearing which cracked causing the locking nut, pin and carrier to unscrew from the control shaft.
The worn French-made component, covered in carbon dust instead of grease for rolling ceramic ball bearings, had deteriorated “well before the accident flight”.
Asked if it was “an accident waiting to happen”, AAIB engineering senior inspector Adrian Cope said:“It was a process which built up continuously.
The damage in that bearing built up over a period of time.”
The issue would not have been discovered under existing maintenance rules as only the larger system is assessed instead of the sealed bearings themselves.
They were only due to be inspected at 400 hours but the G-VSKP helicopter had only done 331 and was deemed airworthy and properly serviced.
Post-crash testing of the Italian vehicle manufacturer’s global fleet found the bearings were also failing on five other helicopters.
They have since been replaced with a new design as part of modifications made to the tail rotor actuator which now undergoes increased monitoring.
The Air Accident Investigations Branch, which published its 209-page report today following a five-year investigation, made eight safety recommendations.
Their advisories surrounding safety checks on critical large helicopter parts will be looked at by the European European Aviation Safety Agency.
