UK/THAILAND. With immense distress, shock and sadness we confirm the passing of King Power International Group and Leicester City Football Club owner and Chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha after a helicopter crash close to the football club’s ground on Saturday evening.
Leicester City Football Club issued the following statement on Sunday night UK time saying: “It 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. None of the five people on-board survived.
“In Khun Vichai, the world has lost a great man. A man of kindness, of generosity and a man whose life was defined by the love he devoted to his family and those he so successfully led.” – Leicester City Football Club
“The primary thoughts of everyone at the Club are with the Srivaddhanaprabha family and the families of all those onboard at this time of unspeakable loss.
“In Khun Vichai, the world has lost a great man. A man of kindness, of generosity and a man whose life was defined by the love he devoted to his family and those he so successfully led. Leicester City was a family under his leadership. It is as a family that we will grieve his passing and maintain the pursuit of a vision for the Club that is now his legacy.
“A book of condolence, which will be shared with the Srivaddhanaprabha family, will be opened at King Power Stadium from 8am on Tuesday 30 October for supporters wishing to pay their respects. [NOTE: Travel retail industry readers can leave their own tributes via the DISQUS platform at the foot of this story. All comments will be passed on to the Srivaddhanaprabha family.]
“Supporters unable to visit King Power Stadium that wish to leave a message can do so through an online book of condolence, which will be made available via lcfc.com in due course. Both Tuesday’s First Team fixture against Southampton in the EFL Cup and the Development Squad fixture against Feyenoord in the Premier League International Cup have been postponed.
“Everyone at the Club has been truly touched by the remarkable response of the football family, whose thoughtful messages of support and solidarity have been deeply appreciated at this difficult time.”
Martin Moodie writes: It is impossible to encapsulate the enormity and tragedy of Khun Vichai’s loss, most of all to family of course, but also to his company, his club, his country which he loved so much – and to our travel retail industry.
Khun Vichai was a man not simply of great achievement but one of compassion, grace and humility. He gave then gave again to all manner of causes, big and small. He touched many people in travel retail, as in his wider life, with individual acts of kindness.
As our industry gathers in Shanghai for the annual Trinity Forum, we will mourn him and remember him. Vichai and his family and company were our hosts for this event last year, as they were in 2011. It was his ardent wish to bring the event back to Bangkok again in 2019. No-one present at either event will forget the trademark Srivaddhanaprabha family warmth and welcome, nor Vichai’s always understated, in fact shy warmth and the innate sense of Thai hospitality.
I must close on a personal note. In 2011 when we first held The Trinity Forum in Bangkok, I was in the early weeks of my recovery from stomach cancer and related surgery. On the first day of the event I was taken seriously ill with post-operative, life-endangering complications.
Khun Vichai personally oversaw that I was treated at the world-class Bumrumgrad International Hospital, but, even more, that his personal physician led my care and visited me each day. After my release a week later, he insisted that I (and a New Zealand friend who flew over to act as my carer) stay at the Pullman Bangkok King Power Hotel as his guests until I was fit enough to fly home. I was not treated as an industry executive but as a family friend.
Such was the measure of this great man. We join everyone in our industry in expressing our deepest sorrow and condolences to Khun Vichai’s family, friends, management and staff on their pain and inconsolable loss. It is a loss in which all who knew him, will share.
