Leicester mourns for tycoon respected beyond Premier League
Leicester City is in deep mourning after the Thai billionaire who managed to touch and influence an entire community.
Leicester City is in deep mourning after the Thai billionaire who managed to touch and influence an entire community, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, was confirmed to have died alongside four others in a fiery helicopter crash outside the city’s King Power stadium.
As thousands of teary football fans and community members lay tributes to the Leicester City chairman and owner, the Premier League postponed tonight’s fixture out of respect for the affect his death has had on the team.
The two pilots, Eric Swaffer and Polish-born Izabela Lechowicz, and two of Mr Vichai’s staff Nursara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare died with their boss as the helicopter faltered above the stadium and crashed in an empty staff carpark after Saturday afternoon’s game. The helicopter, en route to Luton airport so that its five passengers could then transfer to a private jet bound for Thailand, cleared the top of the stadium before spinning out of control into the ground, hitting a staff carpark at 8.36pm.
Eye witnesses said the pilots appeared to have tried to steer the out-of-control chopper away from fans leaving the stadium.
A Sky sports cameraman Dan Cox said: “I heard it coming out of the stadium. The next thing I just looked up and it was spinning, static, just out of control. I don’t know how the pilot did it but he seemed to manage to slow down the rotation and it drifted off into the corner part of the car park.
‘’He managed to crash that helicopter in a part of the ground where there wasn’t anybody there. The pilot was heroic and the two police in front of me, who also tried to help, they are heroes too.”
One of the officers tried to smash a window before the helicopter erupted into a fireball and he has been treated for shock and slight injuries.
Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, who was quickly on the scene, said he was totally devastated and heartbroken. In a tribute, he wrote that Mr Vichai changed football forever through his inspiring ownership and gave everyone hope that the impossible was possible. “Never have I ever come across a man like you,’’ he wrote. ‘’So hard-working, so dedicated, so passionate, so kind and so generous in the extreme. You had time for everyone.
“You touched everyone. It didn’t matter who it was, you had time for them. I always admired you as a leader, as a father, and as a man.”
Mr Vichai had galvanised Leicester when he turned around a struggling club in the second-tier championship to the point that it didn’t just get promoted to the Premier League, but won the premiership in 2016.
He would celebrate the team’s success with the fans with free beer and doughnuts and this year he gave away 60 season tickets to celebrate his 60th birthday.
Outside of the pitch, he contributed heavily to local hospitals and even to the campaign to re-bury king Richard III.
His understanding of the fans and his appreciation of football’s place in wider civic life has brought him much love and affection in return.
Leicester City football club said in a statement: “In Khun Vichai, the world has lost a great man. A man of kindness, of generosity and a man whose life was defined by the love he devoted to his family and those he so successfully led. Leicester City was a family under his leadership.
“It is as a family that we will grieve his passing and maintain the pursuit of a vision for the club that is now his legacy.”
Leicester police said the air accidents investigation branch was investigating the crash of the Agusta Westland AW169 helicopter. Police said it took 26 hours to release any details of the victims because they had to notify next of kin, which involved “multiple agencies’’.
Ms Lechowicz, 46, was described as a “wonderful pilot’’ by the Polish embassy in London. She had been a finalist in the Polka100, which seeks to recognise exceptional Polish women in the UK. Her partner, Swaffer, 53, was the regular pilot for Mr Vichai.
Ms Nursara was a former beauty queen who was runner-up in Miss Thailand 2005.
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