FOUR FEARED DEAD IN CHOPPER CRASH
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A MILLIONAIRE businessman and three others were feared dead today after the helicopter carrying them home from last night’s Liverpool-Chelsea Champions League clash crashed.
Phillip Carter, a wealthy Blues fan, was understood to have been on board the twin-engine Squirrel which went off the radar shortly after 12.30am.
The chopper had left John Lennon Airport in Liverpool after last night’s match and was heading to a private landing site near Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, when it disappeared.
Rescue services found the wreckage in woodland near Wansford, Cambridgeshire, this morning.
Mr Carter is the founder of fast-growing training company Carter & Carter.
Faye Adkin, of Carter and Carter Group, said the helicopter was carrying Mr Carter, the pilot and two or three passengers when it went missing.
She said: “At this moment we are praying and hoping for the best.”
Ms Adkin went on: “Phillip Carter was returning from the Liverpool football match. We have not had any reported sightings at the moment.
“We do not know where he and his passengers are. There have been reports that the helicopter has come down but we cannot confirm anything.”
A Cambridgeshire Police spokeswoman said: “The helicopter, we believe, had about four or five people on board and was a twin-engine Squirrel.
“It left John Lennon Airport in Liverpool at about 11pm last night and was on its way to a private address near Peterborough.
“It appears to have disappeared off the radar.”
The incident stirs memories of the October 1996 crash which killed Chelsea’s vice-chairman Matthew Harding and four other men as they returned from a Bolton Wanderers match.
The Twin Squirrel helicopter plummeted to earth in farmland near Middlewich, Cheshire, and burst into flames following a Coca-Cola Cup tie.