2018 Helicopter Tragedy - Investigation Outcome/Verdict Released

[ian__marshall]

Tragic. In hindsight it appears like some serious oversight by both the manufacturer and regulatory body, but if it's served them well up until that point you can't really attribute any blame for not identifying these failures even though there's an argument that such recommendations seem rather obvious and probably should have been best practice anyway.

 

It's such a shame that learning sometimes comes about at the expense of human life. If there's any positives to take away from this incident, at least now processes will be in place to prevent another incident like this occurring again. From the reports it sounds like it was a miracle no one else lost their lives given the helicopter wasn't responding to the pilots controls. 

 

Having read the BBC article, I hadn't realised that the passengers had survived the crash but the fuel spill was what took their lives. Again surely there's some learnings here around the amount of impact fuel tanks must be able to withstand in a crash before they rupture. 

 

The whole scenario is just so sad.

[StanSP]

30 minutes ago, ian__marshall said:

Tragic. In hindsight it appears like some serious oversight by both the manufacturer and regulatory body, but if it's served them well up until that point you can't really attribute any blame for not identifying these failures even though there's an argument that such recommendations seem rather obvious and probably should have been best practice anyway.

 

It's such a shame that learning sometimes comes about at the expense of human life. If there's any positives to take away from this incident, at least now processes will be in place to prevent another incident like this occurring again. From the reports it sounds like it was a miracle no one else lost their lives given the helicopter wasn't responding to the pilots controls. 

 

Having read the BBC article, I hadn't realised that the passengers had survived the crash but the fuel spill was what took their lives. Again surely there's some learnings here around the amount of impact fuel tanks must be able to withstand in a crash before they rupture. 

 

The whole scenario is just so sad.

Not sure it was such a serious oversight. 

 

Serviceable after 400 hours of flight time. But this helicopter had only done 331 hours. So not an oversight as such. 

 

Of course new legislation may come in that it gets serviced more regularly, but it's like when a car is recommended to have a service after 10,000 miles of driving, but something goes wrong after 5,000 miles. It may not be the fault of the manufacturer or the driver that something went wrong, but just seriously unfortunate and at the time there wouldn't have been a need to service it or check for malfunction. 

[justfoxes]

9 hours ago, Tuna said:

Report is here

 

https://www.gov.uk/aaib-reports/aircraft-accident-report-aar-1-slash-2023-leonardo-aw169-g-vskp

That is such a sad read to find out the facts of the Accident and the description of the crash, that evening we lost an amazing gentleman along with the 2 pilots and Khun Vichai’s guests a very dark night in the history of our amazing club.

 

RIP Khun Vichai sadly missed but never ever Forgotten !!

[Supergray22]

Just now, justfoxes said:

That is such a sad read to find out the facts of the Accident and the description of the crash, that evening we lost an amazing gentleman along with the 2 pilots and Khun Vichai’s guests a very dark night in the history of our amazing club.

 

RIP Khun Vichai sadly missed but never ever Forgotten !!

Just reading this brings back all those sad and haunting memories from that time. I can only imagine how sad it makes Top and the family feel. He will never be forgotten. RIP Khun Vichai. 

[justfoxes]

1 minute ago, Supergray22 said:

Just reading this brings back all those sad and haunting memories from that time. I can only imagine how sad it makes Top and the family feel. He will never be forgotten. RIP Khun Vichai. 

Exactly 5 years on but I’m sure the family had the report when it was released before todays public publication, every time I go to the ground see the great man’s statue it brings back the good times of what he achieved and that sad evening !

[StevieH]

Just reading this makes me even more angry with the idiots who were having a go at Top last season about the Foxes form. Some things are bigger than football!!

[Bert]

2 hours ago, EastAnglianFox said:

I wish I hadn’t read it all now, but wow what a job the Pilot and Co pilot did in just 14 seconds in an attempt to not only give everybody the best chance of survival but also thinking of the built up area below..incredible.

 

But after reading that all I can think is, if it wasn’t for that raised concrete/kerb where they landed then there’s a chance it wouldn’t have toppled and less chance of a fuel leak and obviously a more easy escape route for any left conscious?

It’s what they’re taught when training…. Just such a sad tragic event that I don’t think anyone with our club will ever forget. 
 

Remember exactly where I was, 3 phones went off at the same time. 

Edited 6 September 2023 by Bert

[sacreblueits442]

5 hours ago, Sly said:

In essence, with the bearing failure in the rotor then, this was an accident waiting to happen. 
 

What I am surprised by and I’m sure that some of the more production or engineering members of the forum would be better placed to comment on, can you not hear a difference when bearings begin to fail? 

...you would suspect with the rotors going and being inside the helicopter, you would not be able to discern the sound of a failing mechanism!!!

I have no knowledge regarding helicopters, but if a process where the rear rotors were initially engaged prior to the main blades going into action, you possibly could tell if something was amiss.

[davieG]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-leicestershire-66723878

Includes a video animation of what happened/caused it.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-leicestershire-46373083

Prince William's visit

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-leicestershire-46016215

Sea of  fans tributes

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-46166759

Leicester City fans march in honour of owner

 

 

[Gamble92]

15 minutes ago, StevieH said:

Just reading this makes me even more angry with the idiots who were having a go at Top last season about the Foxes form. Some things are bigger than football!!

You're right, they're not. Which is why it's not relatable. We discuss the football side of things in football threads. 

[indierich06]

Awful to hear that most of them survived the initial crash, I can't imagine what those last moments would have been like. Hopefully it was extremely brief and they were unconscious.

[The Year Of The Fox]

Horrific memories 

 

We’d only left the Symphony Venue 30 mins before the crash. Had only just started on our first pint in The Highcross when the news broke. 

[Fox92]

42 minutes ago, StevieH said:

Just reading this makes me even more angry with the idiots who were having a go at Top last season about the Foxes form. Some things are bigger than football!!

It's not related. Some things are bigger than football but this is a football forum discussing football things and last season we got relegated.

[TJQuik]

That makes for horrific reading.

[sylofox]

20 minutes ago, indierich06 said:

Awful to hear that most of them survived the initial crash, I can't imagine what those last moments would have been like. Hopefully it was extremely brief and they were unconscious.

An expert said in that situation you have two breaths before your unconscious. Was on the radio this morning.

[David Hankey]

Terrible and tragic but we will never forget you Vichai. 

 

Thanks for all you gave to Leicester City Football Club.

 

Rest in peace dear friend.

[stripeyfox]

4 minutes ago, sylofox said:

An expert said in that situation you have two breaths before your unconscious. Was on the radio this morning.

I think this is (mercifully) the case. I believe in the case of a large fire in a confined location (like a crashed vehicle) the fire consumes the oxygen very rapidly causing loss of consciousness.

 

Let's hope so anyway...

 

[Spudulike]

1 hour ago, justfoxes said:

Exactly 5 years on but I’m sure the family had the report when it was released before todays public publication, every time I go to the ground see the great man’s statue it brings back the good times of what he achieved and that sad evening !

Would be even better if they moved the portable music stage elsewhere so that we could actually see it. Approach from Raw Dykes Road direction and you wouldn't know that it was there. 

[An Away Move]

5 hours ago, StanSP said:

The fuel leak could have occurred seconds before that, perhaps? 

 

Agree about pilot and Co-pilot. To have the speed of thought to soften the landing is incredible. In those seconds of chaos they still had the presence of mind to think of that. 

Sounds like the pilot put the helicopter down as ‘softly’ as he could manage in an area least likely to cause more fatalities. But still with enough to impact to kill one and injure the others. The fuel leak came from hitting a concrete step. Horrendous. 
Pilot is a hero. 

[StevieH]

2 hours ago, Fox92 said:

It's not related. Some things are bigger than football but this is a football forum discussing football things and last season we got relegated.

If you hadn't noticed this thread is about the crash not football.

[BenTheFox]

3 hours ago, StevieH said:

Just reading this makes me even more angry with the idiots who were having a go at Top last season about the Foxes form. Some things are bigger than football!!

I was going to go into detail as to why I think this is really inappropriate but that would completely hijack the thread. 

[bmt]

How do they know about the post-crash, pre-fire fatalities?

 

Really emotional reading some of this back and remembering. We really miss Vichai.

 

The pilot's skill and calmness of mind really must have been exceptional, with so many people so close to where the accident happened (I myself was close by in the holiday inn) he did something amazing to ensure nobody else was harmed and give the highest chance of survival to those in the helicopter.

 

Rest in peace

[BenTheFox]

13 minutes ago, StevieH said:

If you hadn't noticed this thread is about the crash not football.

YOU LITERALLY BROUGHT FOOTBALL INTO IT!

[ian__marshall]

3 hours ago, StanSP said:

Not sure it was such a serious oversight. 

 

Serviceable after 400 hours of flight time. But this helicopter had only done 331 hours. So not an oversight as such. 

 

Of course new legislation may come in that it gets serviced more regularly, but it's like when a car is recommended to have a service after 10,000 miles of driving, but something goes wrong after 5,000 miles. It may not be the fault of the manufacturer or the driver that something went wrong, but just seriously unfortunate and at the time there wouldn't have been a need to service it or check for malfunction. 

@StanSP I agree regarding service intervals. I was more alluding to the fact that the load requirements for the bearings weren't shared between the helicopter and bearing manufacturers meaning that stress tolerances weren't validated. Seems like details such as this were left to assumption rather than actual testing. Furthermore the fact that such validations/certification weren't mandated by the regulator seems like a misjudgement. I think taken as a collective there seems to a series of errors that suggest serious oversight by the manufacturers and regulators alike, although as suggested previously it's always easy to draw such conclusions with the 20/20 vision that hindsight brings.

[longy]

Damn that's hard to read.

 

Brings back waves of emotion. 😢

 

He came from Thailand and now he's one of our own .. 💙