An inquest into the deaths of five people killed when a Leonardo AW169 helicopter crashed at an English soccer stadium on Oct. 27, 2018, has ruled that the loss of life was accidental. The case heard by a jury and a senior coroner in Leicester reached its verdict late on Tuesday, essentially confirming the main findings of a September 2023 report by the UK’s Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB).
Catherine Mason, the coroner, instructed the jury that the two-week hearing could only conclude that the deaths had been accidental since there were no legal grounds to dispute the AAIB finding that the main cause of the crash was due to failures in the tail rotor pitch control mechanism. “The helicopter had all airworthiness and maintenance certificates,” said the jury in their statement at the end of the hearing. “It was found that the pilot took all available and appropriate options to try to regain control of the helicopter.”
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