The doomed Leicester City helicopter crashed into a fireꦛball when a pedal controlling the tail rotor became disconnected, a reporꦬt has revealed.
The club’s owner, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, 60, and four others were outside the King Power Stadium following a game against West Ham in October.
The billio🧜naire died along with his assistants Kavenporn Punpare and Nusar𓄧a Suknamai, 33.
Pilot Eric Swaffer, 53, and his girlfriend, Izabela Roza Lechowicz, 46, were also killed in the crash just seconds after ta𓂃keoff at 7:37 p.m. on Oct.꧃ 27.
The Air Accidents Investiga🔴tion Branch (AAIB) found the AgustaWestland AW169 spiraled out of control when a pedal controlling the tail rotor became disconnected.
“The tail rotor system was first inspected at the crash site,” Thursday’s report said. “This identified that the input lever mechanism was not attached to the control shaft. The pin, spacers and one of the locating bearings were missing from the lever. The locking nut and pin carrier were found loose in the tail rotor fairing and were bonded together (they should be separate components).”
The eight-page report concluded the failure of the rotor caused the helicopter to viole﷽ntly veer to the right, which le🔯d to it crashing in a fireball.
The report said: “Loss of the feedback mechanism rendered the yaw stops ineffective, allowing the tail rotor to continue changing the pitch of the tail rotor blades until they reached the physical limit of their travel.
“This resulted in an uncontrollable right yaw. Whilst the shaft was rotating and a yaw control input was applied, the shaft ‘unscrewed’ from the nut, disconnecting the shaft from the actuator lever mechanism, and causing the nut to become welded to the pin carrier.”
The report also💃 recommended five safety requirements be made to 𒉰all AW169 helicopters to prevent future tragedies.