RugbyRebels

First off, what a dreadful thing to happen.

Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha was instrumental in pulling an entire city together and making dreams come true for many football fans.

What bothers me somewhat is the way the incident was reported by the press. When the news broke, it wasn't clear who was on board, if there were any survivors or fatalities. Fair enough. Then hours later, it was confirmed that Srivaddhanaprabha was indeed on board, but the BBC and others still didn't report the possibility that anyone was presumed dead. Maybe that was out of respect to the families of those involved, but in similar circumstances which haven't involved billionaires, the news has wasted no time reporting on possible numbers of fatalities. When military, commercial or private aircraft crash, we usually read/hear reports of how many are presumed dead in the first reports.

Maybe I'm being a bit macabre here, but it just seemed to be reported quite a bit differently.

The next thing that bothered me was the reports of the hero pilot who somehow managed to divert the helicopter away from where people were on the ground and as a result saving 100s of lives...whilst sacrificing his own.

Fair play, top fella.

It's only that some eye-witness accounts say the helicopter was completely out of control when it fell out of the sky. If that was the case, could a pilot really have any control on where it landed? It must've been over in seconds.

Are there any people with experience on flying or avionics who could confirm whether this could happen? I could believe it more if it was a plane that was gradually losing altitude, but if it was spinning out of control, could a pilot do anything in those circumstances?

I noticed the first part and wasn't sure why it was reported the way it was. On the second point, I understood the tail rotor had packed up but, even if he could have had no control, I don't see any harm in attempting to give his family some tiny crumb of comfort/pride.

onlynameleft wrote:I noticed the first part and wasn't sure why it was reported the way it was. On the second point, I understood the tail rotor had packed up but, even if he could have had no control, I don't see any harm in attempting to give his family some tiny crumb of comfort/pride.

In the same way that psychics give comfort to people?

The thing that bothers me about it is that it may not be true. At best it's clickbait, at worst, it's fake news by the very definition of the words.

At a time when news reporting is under the microscope for honest reporting, this just seems a bit reckless...just to give a bit of comfort to the pilot's family. It could backfire even more if it turns out he made a mistake that led to the tragedy.

I think the news should stick to the facts for the information they relay. By all means be respectful to the victims and families, but making stuff up is a bit daft.

Whilst I can't think of any instances off the top of my head, I'm sure I've read similar headlines in similar circumstances where a 'hero' pilot avoided mass crowds when coming down in an out of control aircraft.

I was quite sure that the absence of details on casualties meant that it was probable that all were lost and the police were trying to ensure that families were informed before the media; nothing sinister or underhand about that, surely?

I can tell you now that with the tail rotor out and the loss of control at such a low altitude, the pilot would have had feck all influence on where the thing crashed.

Almost no mention of the four others who died, all the focus is on one chap who managed to prevent any competition in duty free shopping in a tourist rich country. I've no basis to suppose he was virulently corrupt, but it is hard to see why such a vast ongoing monopoly was allowed for his personal enrichment

SerjeantWildgoose wrote:I was quite sure that the absence of details on casualties meant that it was probable that all were lost and the police were trying to ensure that families were informed before the media; nothing sinister or underhand about that, surely?

I can tell you now that with the tail rotor out and the loss of control at such a low altitude, the pilot would have had feck all influence on where the thing crashed.

The air crash investigation will establish how much the pilot was able to influence the crash. It is sloppy to report that as a fact before it is properly established.

The 'I can tell you' provides the caveat of personal opinion. Has Rowan hacked into your account Monkey boy!?!

SerjeantWildgoose wrote:The 'I can tell you' provides the caveat of personal opinion. Has Rowan hacked into your account Monkey boy!?!

I’m mostly agreeing with you and I get that level of abuse! Was I too subtle for an infantry man, I can add some grunts and crayon drawings if it would help?

On reflection, that does represent an unforgivable level of abuse. Please accept my unreserved apology for suggesting any similarity between your post and those of our late, lamented friend Rowan.

Digby wrote:Almost no mention of the four others who died, all the focus is on one chap who managed to prevent any competition in duty free shopping in a tourist rich country. I've no basis to suppose he was virulently corrupt, but it is hard to see why such a vast ongoing monopoly was allowed for his personal enrichment

But it is also undeniable that he has had a positive influence on Leicester and been pretty generous to local charities.

It is probably understandable that people influenced by him over here (Leicester fans, Leicester folk) have no real issue with a business man possibly legally, possibly not, making his fortune on the other side of the world. There is a level of ignorance is bliss, but also innocent until proven guilty.

Rightly or wrongly, his death is the biggest part of this story, and indeed why it is such a big story. There are helicopter crashes almost every other year that results in deaths. I can tell you Colin McCrae died in a helicopter crash, I couldn't tell you his sons name or the name of his sons friend who also died.

Dan Roan at the BBC apparently put his foot in it yesterday by being mic'd up and suggesting the young lady was in fact a mistress. A billionaire with an ex-beauty queen mistress - shocker! But that may also be why there is not too much focus on her.

Dan Roan wrote: "The mistress who died in the crash…otherwise known as a member of staff…i.e. mistress.

“If you were a billionaire, it’s relatively expected, so we shouldn’t judge.”

SerjeantWildgoose wrote:I was quite sure that the absence of details on casualties meant that it was probable that all were lost and the police were trying to ensure that families were informed before the media; nothing sinister or underhand about that, surely?

I can tell you now that with the tail rotor out and the loss of control at such a low altitude, the pilot would have had feck all influence on where the thing crashed.

The video of the helicopter taking off and then disappearing behind the stand. The helicopter comes down at an angle away from something so not being knowledgeable in these things I have no idea if it was skill or "luck".

Big D wrote:

Digby wrote:Almost no mention of the four others who died, all the focus is on one chap who managed to prevent any competition in duty free shopping in a tourist rich country. I've no basis to suppose he was virulently corrupt, but it is hard to see why such a vast ongoing monopoly was allowed for his personal enrichment

But it is also undeniable that he has had a positive influence on Leicester and been pretty generous to local charities.

]

We can only stand and admire when a fortune made in Thailand can be used to aid a major city in one of the world's richest nations

SerjeantWildgoose wrote:On reflection, that does represent an unforgivable level of abuse. Please accept my unreserved apology for suggesting any similarity between your post and those of our late, lamented friend Rowan.

Written by a man who has written a fair few apologies to a PMC I’m guessing?

Big D wrote:But it is also undeniable that he has had a positive influence on Leicester and been pretty generous to local charities.

It is probably understandable that people influenced by him over here (Leicester fans, Leicester folk) have no real issue with a business man possibly legally, possibly not, making his fortune on the other side of the world. There is a level of ignorance is bliss, but also innocent until proven guilty.

Rightly or wrongly, his death is the biggest part of this story, and indeed why it is such a big story. There are helicopter crashes almost every other year that results in deaths. I can tell you Colin McCrae died in a helicopter crash, I couldn't tell you his sons name or the name of his sons friend who also died.

Dan Roan at the BBC apparently put his foot in it yesterday by being mic'd up and suggesting the young lady was in fact a mistress. A billionaire with an ex-beauty queen mistress - shocker! But that may also be why there is not too much focus on her.

Dan Roan wrote: "The mistress who died in the crash…otherwise known as a member of staff…i.e. mistress.

“If you were a billionaire, it’s relatively expected, so we shouldn’t judge.”

I'm not from Leicester, or a Leicester City fan, but I can still appreciate what Vichai did for the club and the city in general. He brought an entire population together and gave them something to remember, as well as build on, in terms of investment and the future.

I have no idea how he made his money, I don't give a shit to be honest. He seemed to be generous with it and enabled others who were less fortunate to benefit from his wealth.

Fair play.

At the same time, I loved Dan Roan's comments!

I'm still not sold on the 'hero pilot' claims after seeing the video footage.

At the same time, I still know little to nothing about emergency procedures under duress, and supposed experts are trying to tell me the pilot was a nailed on hero.

Similar experts try to tell me that Farrell is the best 10/12/player/tackler in the world.

*fake news*

Another thing that bothers me is the media's insistence on focusing on particular player's grief.

In this instance, Kasper Schmeichel seems to be under the spotlight.

The lad looks like he is genuinely having trouble coming to terms with things. So what do the media do? Oh yeah, let him be the outlet of emotion for the team.

Fuck that...but it's lapped up.