Private helicopter crashes in UK

May 2, 2007



Police earlier released a statement reporting that a private helicopter carrying several people had vanished following the Champions League football semi-final between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield stadium.

The helicopter left Liverpool's John Lennon Airport on Tuesday night at around 11pm, and was heading for a private landing site near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire when it vanished. It is believed to have left radar screens at around 12.30am.

A police spokeswoman said: "Details are sketchy at the moment. The helicopter, we believe, had about four or five people on board and was a twin-engine Twin Squirrel.  It left John Lennon Airport in Liverpool at about 11pm and was on its way to a private address near Peterborough.  It appears to have disappeared off the radar. At the moment we are trying to find out more. The best case scenario is that it has made an emergency landing somewhere."

The wreckage of the helicopter was found in woodlands near Wansford, in Cambridgeshire. The pilot has been named as Stephen Holdich, co-owner of operating company Atlas Helicopters.

Also on board were Jonathan Waller and Phillip Carter, as well as other people yet to be named. It is believed one of the others on board was Mr Carter's teenage son, Andrew. It has been released that the people found on board are deceased.

In 1996 Chelsea vice chairman Matthew Harding was killed when his helicopter, also a Twin Squirrel, crashed while returning from a match against Bolton Wanderers.