LONDON (Reuters) -The family of Thai businessman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who died when his helicopter crashed in 2018, said on Friday it had made a 2.15 billion pound ($2.65 billion) legal claim against Italian defence company Leonardo in a London court.
The action, which claims for loss of earnings and other damages, represented the largest fatal accident claim in English legal history, the family of Srivaddhanaprabha, the former owner of Leicester City soccer club, said in a statement.
Leonardo said it would defend itself against the High Court claim, which it was considering with legal advisers and insurers. It expressed its “deepest sympathy” for the victims of the crash, saying their deaths were “an unquestionable tragedy”.
In a statement, Leonardo also said it met “the most modern and stringent certification and safety standards in the sector”.
Helicopter pilot Eric Swaffer, his partner Izabela Roza Lechowicz and two members of Srivaddhanaprabha’s staff, Nusara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare, were also killed shortly after taking off outside Leicester City’s King Power Stadium.
Srivaddhanaprabha bought Leicester City in 2010 and the club won the English Premier League in 2016 under his ownership.
Britain’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said in a 2023 report that it had not been possible for the pilot to recover from a tail rotor failure in the Leonardo AW169 helicopter.
Leonardo said after that report that its AW169 helicopters remained safe to fly and that the AAIB had concluded it complied with all regulatory requirements in the design and manufacture.
($1 = 0.8120 pounds)
(Reporting by Sam Tobin, additional reporting by Giulia Segreti, writing by Sachin Ravikumar, editing by Catarina Demony and Alexander Smith)
