An entrepreneur and politician who was Northern Ireland’s richest man was among four people killed when a helicopter crashed in thick fog in eastern England late on Thursday.
Lord Ballyedmond, a Conservative peer in the House of Lords, was in the twin-engined AgustaWestland AW139 when it came down near the town of Beccles in Norfolk.
The 70-year-old, known as Edward Haughey until he was made a peer in 2004, was founder and chairman of Norbrook, a veterinary pharmaceuticals company.
Haughey owned Gillingham Hall, a stately home near the crash site. His personal fortune was worth £860 million (HK$11.1 billion), according to The Sunday Times newspaper’s Rich List last year.
It has emerged that the entrepreneur had sued the manufacturer of his helicopter over safety concerns including a “big hole” in one of the rotor blades and oil leaks.
Reports said Ballyedmond’s company Haughey Air lodged a writ against AgustaWestland in September last year over concerns about the in-flight mapping systems of a helicopter supplied by them.