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| Khun Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, and Aimon Srivaddhanaprabha, son and wife of Leicester City’s owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, look at tributes at the scene of the helicopter crash on Monday |
The weeping wife and son of Leicester City owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha laid a wreath outside the football clubโs stadium on Monday as tributes poured in after the Thai tycoonโs death in a helicopter crash.
Vichai and four others were killed when his helicopter crashed next to the King Power stadium and then exploded after a Premier League match on Saturday.
His wife Aimon and son Khun joined hundreds of fans at the stadium where a mass of messages, floral tributes, shirts and scarves were laid in honour of the father of four and founder of duty-free King Power International who was a huge favourite with the clubโs supporters.
โIt is with the deepest regret and a collective broken heart that we confirm our chairman, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, was among those to have tragically lost their lives on Saturday evening when a helicopter carrying him and four other people crashed outside King Power Stadium,โ a club statement said on Sunday.
The other victims two members of his staff, Nursara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare, pilot Eric Swaffer and passenger Izabela Roza Lechowicz, Leicestershire Police said.
The aircraft came down in a car park near the King Power stadium shortly after 19:30 GMT, about an hour after the end of Leicester Cityโs game against West Ham United.
Britainโs Air Accident Investigations Branch said it had sent a team to examine the wreckage and had recovered the helicopterโs flight data recorder.
โToday, our inspectors in Farnborough will start working on the recorder, which was subject to intense heat as a result of the post-accident fire,โ the AAIB said in a statement.
โWe expect to be here until the end of the week, at which point we will transport the wreckage to our specialist facilities in Farnborough for more detailed examination. In the meantime, we are still gathering evidence as part of our investigation.โ
Vichai bought the unheralded central England side in 2010 and went on to stun the soccer world by beating odds of 5,000/1 to win the Premier League title in 2016 in what amounted to a sporting fairy tale.
Prime Minister Theresa May was among the many who sent messages of condolence while tributes have flooded in from Leicester players and across the soccer world.
Britainโs Prince William, President of the English Football Association, said he had known Vichai for several years.
โHe made such a big contribution to football, not least through Leicester Cityโs magical 2016 season that captured the imagination of the world,โ William said in a statement.
โHe will be missed by all fans of the sport and everyone lucky enough to have known him.โ
