Kasper Schmeichel admits Leicester owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha's helicopter crash will 'live with him forever' and reveals he was pulled back by security after sprinting towards the wreckage

Kasper Schmeichel has admitted the helicopter crash that killed Leicester owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha will 'live with him forever' after recalling the 2018 tragedy.

Thai billionaire Srivaddhanaprabha was one of five people killed in the horrifying crash, which also claimed the lives of employees Nursara Suknamai and Kaveporn Punpare, as well as co-pilots Eric Swaffer and his girlfriend Izabela Roza Lechowicz.

Shortly after taking off from the pitch, the Leonardo AW169 helicopter reached an altitude of approximately 430ft before plummeting to the ground, despite the best efforts of its highly experienced pilot.

Four of the five on board survived the initial impact, but no-one made it out alive after the helicopter was engulfed by flames within a minute after a major fuel leak.

Schmeichel had been one of the first people on the scene of the crash outside Leicester's King Power Stadium. 

The goalkeeper, speaking to Gary Lineker on The Rest is Football podcast, recalled that he had watched the helicopter take off from the centre of the pitch with members of his family.

Schmeichel remembered talking to a member of Leicester staff as the helicopter took off, before the realisation that something had gone wrong after seeing it 'spinning' and then start 'tumbling towards the ground'.

He revealed sprinted through the tunnel to head out of the ground, before hearing a 'metallic thud' when the helicopter crashed outside.'

'As I've come round the corner, I see the flames, and I'm sprinting towards this, down this little embankment, and kind of get really right up to it, and having this really vivid moment that will live with me forever, of looking at this, this wreckage,' Schmeichel said.

'A huge fire, feeling the heat of it was like searing heat, and thinking, "there is no way anyone can survive this". 

'I'd literally seen him 20 seconds before.

'At that point I remember having a really strange moment of clarity where I thought about my own kids, where I remember thinking, I want to, I want to try and get into this helicopter to do something.

'Some kind of logic took over in my head, and no one's surviving this, and if this thing blows up here, my kids are going to be without a dad.'

Initial reports suggested police had held Schmeichel back, with the goalkeeper revealing at one stage he could 'practically touch the helicopter'.

Schmeichel confirmed a member of Leicester's security staff had pulled him away, with the realisation that those on board would not have survived the crash. 

Srivaddhanaprabha had been credited by Leicester fans for helping to transform the club's fortunes.

This culminated in Leicester's famous Premier League title win back in 2016.

Leicester supporters fans left thousands of tributes to Srivaddhanaprabha following his death.

Schmeichel told Lineker that the Leicester owner had an ‘insane belief in success’, revealing Srivaddhanaprabha had told him the club would be in the Champions League in six years on their first meeting – with the club in the Championship at the time.

The goalkeeper credited the Srivaddhanaprabha family for their love and passion for the club, noting how it would have been an ‘incredibly painful memory’ for them to have returned to the stadium.

Vichai's son Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha ultimately succeeded his father as the club’s chairman.