Horrifying new footage shows moment Leicester owner’s helicopter leaves stadium before plummeting to the ground in fatal crash

[webfact]

DEATH SPIN 

Horrifying new footage shows moment Leicester owner’s helicopter leaves stadium before plummeting to the ground in fatal crash

New video, which The Sun has passed to investigators, shows Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s helicopter violently spinning before falling out of the sky at terrifying speed

By Rob Pattinson and Chloe Mayer

 

The helicopter taking off from the King Power Stadium pitch//The SUN

 

THE helicopter carrying Leicester City’s billionaire owner is seen in a new video moments before spinning fatally out of control.

 

The horrific clip shows it in the 37 seconds before it crashed in a fireball. The clip was leaked on social media. The Sun handed it to accident investigators.

 

Crucially, it captures the section of the flight not covered by CCTV and BT Sport cameras, which had previously emerged.

Aviation expert Jim Rowlands, a former RAF Puma crew member, said: “It is so shocking to see.

 

Full story: https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/7620935/leicester-helicopter-crash-footage-stadium-fatal-spin/

 

-- The SUN 2018-10-31

 

 

[Somtamnication]

Harrowing footage. Shocked it was leaked.

[chiman]

Does anyone know why the copter started to spin?  Mechanical failure? 

[bkkbarnstormer]

Pure speculation as I’m not a pilot but I think a failure of the tail rotor could cause a spin like that. 

[dutchweller]

Looks like loss of power to the tail rotor?

Sad news RIP all.

 

[AhFarangJa]

I am far from an expert but does the tail rotor prevent the spinning, if so it may seem this fails.....

[AlexPTY]

I used to be a pilot, i may be wrong, but there was a hesitation before pilot took off and right after he took off. Looks like not enough thrust, which could be mech issue. i am sure it will be all resolved, but if machine doesn't want to fly, you should abort

[sandrabbit]

10 minutes ago, AlexPTY said:

I used to be a pilot, i may be wrong, but there was a hesitation before pilot took off and right after he took off. Looks like not enough thrust, which could be mech issue. i am sure it will be all resolved, but if machine doesn't want to fly, you should abort

every copter I've been in hovers for a short time after take off then puts the nose down to gain speed and start increasing height but obviously here the height of stadium has to be overcome before attempting forward speed. it seems to start spinning when it has cleared the stadium and about to make forward speed. I think this video will be a great help to the AIIB.

[bangkok blue]

These videos should not be allowed until AIIB have completed their investigation. Families of victims deserve that, before having to witness the gutter press showing these videos of loved ones final moments #vichai #RIP #LCFCfamily 

[Lupatria]

I maybe wrong but at 0:52 to me it looks like a part or the whole rear rotor fell off.

[NextStationBangkok]

Looking at the spin, probably the faulty wings are to be blamed, not sure weather tail wings are to be blamed.

Looks scary, as i cannot imagine the situation inside the Helicopter. Very sad indeed.

Edited October 31, 2018 by NextStationBangkok

[freebyrd]

3 hours ago, Somtamnication said:

Harrowing footage. Shocked it was leaked.

I couldn't agree more. It's sad that the last harrowing moments in the lives of 5 innocent people are put on display for the world to see ????.

[natway09]

Very Sad.

Thank Heavens it did not happen in Thailand...... or the posters on here would have had a field day,

Bad maintenance blah blah blah  only in Thailand blah blah

[Catoni]

2 hours ago, chiman said:

Does anyone know why the copter started to spin?  Mechanical failure? 

Tail rotor failure. 

[Tradewind777]

Forward speed in heli take offs is essential to avoid the “deadman’s envelope”. This is a situation where in the event of power loss to the main rotor, the collective blade pitch can be changed to allow an auto-rotational landing with the assistance of the momentum from the forward motion.  In this case it looks like loss of tail rotor thrust either because of a gearbox failure, tailshaft drivetrain failure or tail rotor failure itself. It could also be a control linkage failure or even pilot error but the latter is probably less likely by an experienced pilot unless he had a medical issue.

[hotchilli]

2 hours ago, chiman said:

Does anyone know why the copter started to spin?  Mechanical failure? 

The tail rotor is used to counter the rotating main rotor blades... if the tail rotor fails the inertia from the main blades will spin the helicopter in this fashion.

A helicopter has one option in a fall, it's called "auto-rotate" but with the spin in motion it cannot be applied.. hence the end result !

[Tradewind777]

7 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

The tail rotor is used to counter the rotating main rotor blades... if the tail rotor fails the inertia from the main blades will spin the helicopter in this fashion.

A helicopter has one option in a fall, it's called "auto-rotate" but with the spin in motion it cannot be applied.. hence the end result !

It’s not the inertia of the main blades it is the opposing reaction force of engine power that drives the fuselage in the opposite direction to the blade rotation. The problem is that engine power has to be cut quickly to prevent the spin. In this case there was no forward momentum or height for the pilot to action this in time. Tragic but all over in 5 seconds. RIP

[Stevemercer]

Yes, while I'm sure the pilot(s) were very experienced, I was always taught to build forward momentum before reaching 100 m (the minimum height for 100% fatality in the event of failure to gain auto-gyration, even if it meant a sort of looping spiral out of the stadium. But maybe there were compelling safety reasons for the straight up/down manouvere.

 

It look like mechanical failure. God bless the victims and RIP.

[FinChin67]

For the forum pilots..

https://gizmodo.com/how-helicopters-are-designed-to-land-safely-when-their-1708128868
 

[Moonlover]

No question about it. This was a tail rotor failure.

 

There was a similar accident in North Wales when an RAF Wessex crashed into a lake back in 1993.

 

That was also attributed to the same failure. See:

 

 

[Bennukbin]

The are a myriad of possible reasons for loss of control such as witnessed in the video. The most likely as has been mentioned before is either loss of power to or loss of a component of the tail rotor system which is designed to counteract the torque produced by the main rotor.

 

The second is a flight control or hydraulic failure. It is difficult to ascertain from the video footage what obstacles were in the area but to my eye it seemed like the aircraft did not transition to horazontal flight at the time one would expect. This might be indicative of the pilot experiencing flight control difficulties such a a component failure. 

 

Another possibility is a phenomenon called vortex ring which can ocvour in certain conditions, often late transition to forward flight where the rotor blades encounter their own downwash and thus rapidly loose lift.  Helicopter pilots are trained to recognize and recover from this however and can be achieved given sufficient height for recovery. This wouldn’t normally result in the out of control spin at the rate that is seen in the video. A similar fate befell one of the Seal team helicopters on the detail to whack Osama bin Laden. Fortunately in that instance everyone walked away.

 

Another hypothesis is sudden pilot incapacitation during the take off. I understand from articles that the pilots partner, who is also a pilot was in the copilot seat so perhaps she could have recovered the situation had this been the case. It isn’t clear from the available information though if she had any training or experience on the particular type of aircraft. 

 

The cause will will be revealed in time as the accident investigation will be very thorough and detailed. 

 

Either way a very tragic and shocking and sad event.

[DrTuner]

Not a nice way to go. I avoid helicopters and scuba diving for a reason.

[Tony Hanscomb]

Vertical flight up a few feet to check systems working then up to clear the height of the stadium. Point the nose down and at the same time power up. At this moment it seems the rear blade lost drive (perhaps the drive shaft from the gearbox) no rear counter thrust into a spin and imposible for the pilot to control.

 

[Leatherneck]

4 hours ago, AhFarangJa said:

I am far from an expert but does the tail rotor prevent the spinning, if so it may seem this fails.....

I'm no expert either but my guess is tail rotor malfunction causing autorotation of the chopper as a possible cause (either fully or partly) for the crash.

[LisuLover]

Keep out of helicopters, they fail frequently and when they do, survival is infrequent. 

[MaksimMislavsky]

2 hours ago, Lupatria said:

I maybe wrong but at 0:52 to me it looks like a part or the whole rear rotor fell off.

Saw on ThaiPBS they were discussing the possiblity of rear rotor being disabled after hitting a drone. Appears to be in line with your observation.

There could have been a paparazzi drone in the air trying to take video of people inside, or a drone could have been sent there for some other reason...

[doodle]

2 hours ago, Lupatria said:

I maybe wrong but at 0:52 to me it looks like a part or the whole rear rotor fell off.

I think that you are absolutely right. A component of some sort can be clearly seen flying off from the tail, near the rear rotor assembly. I saw this before I even read this comment. RIP to all involved.

[GAZZPA]

 

Very Sad.

Thank Heavens it did not happen in Thailand...... or the posters on here would have had a field day,

Bad maintenance blah blah blah  only in Thailand blah blah

Maybe you are right. I think the big difference is there will be a real, honest and transparent investigation into this crash. If someone is to blame then it will be so. 

 

After such a tragic waste of life this is how it should be of course.

 

I know nothing about this guy, except he owns King Power duty free, but by all accounts he was loved by the fans and the players. Terrrible loss for everyone.

 

RIP

[Trouble]

2 hours ago, doodle said:

I think that you are absolutely right. A component of some sort can be clearly seen flying off from the tail, near the rear rotor assembly. I saw this before I even read this comment. RIP to all involved.

It is clear that something happened to the tail rotor and that is noted in the video by the red circle, etc.  I'm sure this will be a valuable piece of evidence for the investigators.  This piece will likely have fallen free from the helicopter wreckage itself and hopefully will lead investigators to find the cause.  Certainly a sad ending for these victims.

[sandrabbit]

35 minutes ago, Different said:

Stupid pilot didn't fully inspect before coming to stadium, you can notice he couldn't throttle forward to fly.  Instead he kept raising up and stalled.

you've not been in many helicopters then .............

 

it's not a throttle it's the cyclic and if he had pushed the stick forward early he would have flown into a stand at high speed.