Helicopter crash mars Leicester city’s draw with Westham

A helicopter said to belong to the owner of Leicester City Football Club; Vichai Srivaddhan helicopter crashed outside of Leicester City’s King Power Stadium on Saturday night after the Foxes’ 1-1 draw with West Ham.

It was unclear who was on board the helicopter, which had taken off just moments before from the stadium. The helicopter spiralled out of control before crashing.

Many said that the crash had marred the joy of the club and its fans Pictures and video posted on social media showed flames and smoke billowing into the air from the stadium parking lot.

Leicester police said in a statement: “We are dealing with an incident in the vicinity of the King Power Stadium. Emergency services are aware and dealing.”

Vichai bought the club in 2010, and the side won the Premier League title in 2016.

According to BBC report,

“It took off as I have seen it do hundreds of times before, it lands and leaves from the pitch like it does every a game.”

BBC football commentator Ian Stringer was at the King Power Stadium on Saturday covering Leicester’s 1-1 draw with West Ham.

Around 90 minutes after full-time, the helicopter belonging to Leicester owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha crashed outside the club’s ground shortly after taking off from the centre circle. It is not yet known who was on board.

“I have seen staff, backroom staff of the first team in tears here this evening,” Stringer adds. “The reception area is described as silent, people are looking around and crying and not knowing what to do and consoling each other.

“This is a very close football club, a tightly knit group of people. People love this guy – they pulled off the greatest sports story ever at this stadium and lifted the Premier League trophy.

“The chairman looked at me today on his way to the executive box and said ‘hello and good afternoon’. I said ‘good luck’, he said ‘thank you’.”

Freelance photographer Ryan Brown had been at the match covering the game.

“I heard the helicopter take off,” he told BBC Radio 5 live. “I turned around and it made a whirring noise and grinding noise and then went silent, it was spinning out of control.

“The blades had stopped spinning and then there was a big bang and a big fireball. Lots of people started running towards the scene, as I came around the corner there was a huge fireball.

“It crashed right near the stadium. It just cleared the stadium roof and landed in an industrial park next to it. By looks of it, it has crashed straight into the ground.”

Stringer spoke to a former Leicester player who said the helicopter “took off as normal and flew over the west stand, as it went over the stand, it dropped out of the sky and hit the ground”.

Andrew James, Match of the Day floor manager added: “I was walking back to the car park and was aware as I got in my car of the noise of the helicopter hovering above the stadium.

“I got in my car because it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary and as I was exiting the car park there was a woman walking in looking towards the sky.

“I said ‘are you OK?’ ‘Can you move?. And she said ‘look, look’. I looked out of my window and saw smoke initially and she kept saying ‘it just spiralled to the ground’. Very quickly, within seconds of that, there was police cars.”

Meanwhile, clubs and players in England and around the world have on their official sites and handles sent in their support messages for Leicester City and their fans over the incident.

Man City in their official twitter handle @ManCity tweeted “The thoughts of everyone at Manchester City are with all those at @LCFC following the incident after tonight’s match at the King Power Stadium.”