£2bn Legal Claim Filed Over Leicester Helicopter Crash

The billionaire Thai family behind Leicester City has filed a historic £2.15 billion lawsuit against Italian aviation company Leonardo, alleging the firm’s responsibility for the 2018 helicopter crash outside the King Power Stadium that killed family patriarch Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha and four others. The legal claim, described as the largest of its kind in British history, has been lodged at the High Court.

Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, Vichai’s son and Leicester City chairman, issued a heartfelt statement accusing Leonardo of failing his father. “My father trusted Leonardo with his life, but the conclusions of the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) report show that his trust was fatally misplaced,” Aiyawatt said. “I hold them wholly responsible for his death.”

The crash occurred in October 2018 after a home match against West Ham, killing Vichai, pilot Eric Swaffer, co-pilot Izabela Roza Lechowicz, and two King Power staff members, Nusara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare. The Srivaddhanaprabha family claims Leonardo is liable for the fatalities, seeking damages reflecting the estimated value of their King Power duty-free business at the time, which generated £2.5 billion in annual revenue and £237 million in profits.

The AAIB’s 209-page report, released in September 2023, concluded that a failure in the tail rotor of the AW169 helicopter rendered it uncontrollable. The helicopter crashed onto its side, and ruptured fuel tanks caused a fire shortly afterward. While four of the five occupants survived the initial impact, they could not escape the subsequent blaze.

Peter Neenan, representing the family, called the AAIB report “as damning as I have ever read,” emphasising that while the AAIB focuses on safety rather than blame, its findings strongly suggest defects and negligence in the helicopter’s design process.

Leonardo, which has been approached for comment, has previously defended the AW169 model as compliant with regulatory standards and safe to operate. The company reiterated this stance following the AAIB’s report.

The Srivaddhanaprabha family asserts that Vichai’s entrepreneurial vision was the driving force behind King Power’s success and Leicester City’s extraordinary 2016 Premier League title win. Aiyawatt’s statement underlines the devastating personal and professional loss inflicted by the crash, as the family continues to seek accountability for the tragedy.