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"We wouldn't have won the Premier League without him"

Leicester City FC owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha has died in a helicopter crash outside the stadium.

As reported by the BBC, Leicester City FC owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was among five people who were killed in a helicopter crash near the football team’s stadium.

Srivaddhanaprabha was killed along with two members of staff (Nursara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare), the pilot (Eric Swaffer) and his partner (Izabela Roza Lechowicz) when the helicopter spun out of control before crashing into the ground on Saturday.

The aircraft crashed in the car park near the stadium about an hour after Leicester’s Premier League match against West Ham United, which ended in a 1-1 draw.

Supt Steve Potter said: “Emergency services were immediately on scene when the crash happened, working to put out the fire and gain access to the helicopter in attempts to reach those inside. Despite those efforts, there were no survivors.”

The 60-year-old Thai billionaire bought Leicester City in 2010 for £39 million. The club made a historic victory by winning the Premier League in 2016, despite starting the season with 5,000/1 odds.

Leicester City said the club’s thoughts were with “the Srivaddhanaprabha family and the families of all those on-board at this time of unspeakable loss”.

Club ambassador Alan Birhcenall said the team owed their success to Srivaddhanaprabha.“We wouldn’t have won it [the Premier League] without him,” he said. “We wouldn’t have got near it without him. There won’t be a dry eye among any of the staff today.”

Swaffer, described as a “veteran in the field” by a friend had over 20 years of flying experience including flying helicopters for Channel 4’s The Big Breakfast.

Lechowicz was also a pilot according to a statement issued by the Polish embassy that read, “with great sadness, we received the news about the death of Izabela Lechowicz in the Leicester catastrophe.”

“She was a great pilot, winner of the #Polka100 contest. It contributed to the creation of a positive image of Poland in the UK.”