Jack Fenton’s bereaved sister has vehemently rebuffed suggestions that he willfully disobeyed security procedures and contributed to his own horrifying death.
Greek officials claimed yesterday that the 22-year-old former public school student rushed the helicopter’s rotating tail rotor in Athens in an attempt to grab a photo and was instantly murdered.
Daisy, his younger sister, who is 20 years old, called the reports “rubbish” and claimed that although her brother was “cautious and suspicious,” he had not received a full briefing from the ground crew or pilot Christos Fragkopanagos, who were both detained and then released yesterday.
It comes after his companion Jack Stanton-Gleaves disputed the police account of what happened while riding in the same helicopter that left the party island of Mykonos.
Jack’s first ever helicopter ride, Daisy, a University of Manchester student, told MailOnline.
So, if anything, you can understand how cautious and wary he was.
The rest, including the claim that he ran back onto the runway and broke protocol, is untrue.
‘Why? due to the lack of protocols. Nobody ever instructed them on what to do or what not to do.
In two private Bell 407 helicopters, Jack, a former student of the £36,000-per-year Sutton Valence boarding school close to his home in Kent, was travelling with a group of pals.
They were on their way to the airport to board a private plane returning to London.
Nobody is entirely certain of what brought him around (towards the tail rotor), Daisy continued.
He might have forgotten something. However, the claim that he returned to snap a selfie is untrue. It’s untrue.
She also defended the Oxford Brookes student’s persona, stating: “Jack wasn’t this rude, wealthy kid.
On this holiday, he was invited. He had never taken a helicopter trip before.
She claimed that her parents, Miguel and Victoria, as well as other family members, were all in the UK and that the businessman and chairman of Bromley FC, Robin Stanton-Gleaves, was aboard the helicopter that was pursuing Jack.
The overall number of the group was six. Late on Tuesday, the others travelled back to the UK.
The family was not going to visit Greece, according to her statement.
“We are merely awaiting the return shipment of his remains.” However, we are still unsure of the exact date.
The unfortunate helicopter was being piloted by Christos Fragkopanagos, head of training at Superior Air in Athens.
Ground crew Salim Milat, Spyros Andriopoulos, and Fragkopanagos, the chief of training at Superior Air in Athens, were detained but later freed by police after they provided statements confirming that Jack was taken into the airport before he fled back outside.
If they instructed the passengers to leave the ship when it wasn’t safe, the trio might be charged with negligence or manslaughter.
However, Jack Stanton-Gleaves, 20, who was onboard the helicopter with pals James Yeabsley, 19, and Max Savage, 20, a former student at Bournemouth University, disputed the official account of what happened.
When we got out of the chopper, there were no instructions given, and no one accompanied us to the lounge, Jack told MailOnline.
They merely held the doors open for us.
We got off the chopper by ourselves, and nobody stopped Jack from heading to the back of the helicopter.
None of us made it to the lounge in time to avoid the accident.
I’ve heard it said that Jack sprinted back to the helicopter while talking on the phone, but this is completely false.
He wasn’t on his phone, and I’m not sure why he turned to face the helicopter’s back.
Speaking to MailOnline from her Tonbridge, Kent home, Jack’s mother Victoria described how the loss of their “beautiful kid” has left the family “totally distraught.”
oannis Kandyllis, head of Greece’s aviation accident committee, who is looking into the incident, stated Wednesday that Jack disobeyed orders by returning to the helicopter while holding his phone to his ear.
All four of the passengers, according to him, had disembarked and were being led to a special lounge to wait for a private flight to London.
However, while they were in the lounge, the victim escaped and ran quickly back to the tarmac in search of the chopper.
Witnesses we spoke to claimed that the man was defying ground personnel by advancing quickly to the aeroplane while holding a phone to his ear. Stop!’
‘The horrible accident happened in a matter of seconds. It was terrible.
The 22-year-old is said to have died quickly despite emergency personnel being sent to the private heliport on the outskirts of the Greek capital.
Greek investigators will look for proof in the surveillance footage from the landing field.
They admitted that a number of other persons saw the tragedy from the lounge.
They have not yet been interviewed, but we will get in touch with them to gain further information as we try to put this puzzle together.
We only learned what happened at 10 o’clock last night, his mother Victoria stated Wednesday.
We are devastated beyond belief. He was the most amazing young man.
‘From the looks of it, it was the most terrible of accidents.
With a few of his pals, Jack had gone to Greece to celebrate the birthdays of a couple.
The man’s family has remained in Kent. Greece wasn’t where we went. Along with them was the father of one of his friends.
“Jack and his buddies took a helicopter without incident from Athens to Mykonos, so they decided to do it again and took a helicopter from Mykonos to Athens.
He had safely exited the aircraft when it touched down in Athens, but for some reason he returned to the helicopter’s rear, where the propeller’s backward motion killed him. Instant onset.
He had been out the previous night, but aside from water, he had nothing to drink yesterday. He was sober, as were his pals.
It was suggested that a subsequent chopper bringing Jack’s buddies and one of their fathers land at a different airport so they could escape the horrific scene at the helipad.
The pilot and the two ground crew members at the private heliport in Paiania, northeast of Athens, testified before a prosecutor, giving the commission looking into the causes of the exceptional disaster full testimony, according to Mr. Kandyllis.
According to Mr. Kandyllis, the Bell helicopter’s landing and the four passengers’ disembarkation complied with all safety rules.
According to aviation regulations, passengers must be escorted off the helicopter either after the rotors have totally stopped or when professional personnel is present.
In this instance, passengers disembarked through both the left and right doors. All of them were led to the seating lounge safely.
“After” is when the catastrophe happened.
The group was supposed to disembark at the Superior Air helipad and then be driven to Eleftherios Venizelos airport to board a private jet for their travel back to the UK.
Yeabsley, Savage, and Stanton-Gleaves, three of Jack’s buddies, flew back to the United Kingdom yesterday from Athens’ Spata airport aboard a private jet.
James Thomas, the headmaster of Sutton Valence, issued the following statement: “Our School was very sad to hear the dreadful news about Jack this morning.
He was a very well-liked member of the community, and we have given the family our condolences.
“All individuals impacted by the catastrophe are in our thoughts and prayers,” was stated.
Miguel Fenton, the father of Jack Fenton, oversees marketing, sales, and public relations at The Hop Farm, a 400-acre country park and tourist destination in Beltring, Kent, close to Tonbridge.
‘This is a personal situation, nothing to do with the business, and we have no comment,’ a representative for the Hop Farm told MailOnline.
The brewery owned the farm, which was formerly known as The Whitbread Hop Farm and has the biggest collection of oast houses in the world, up until 1997.
If the pilot doesn’t press a button to halt the rotors after about 50 seconds to stop them, they typically continue for around two minutes after the engine has been turned off.
The helicopter has no locks, and the only person in charge of keeping the passengers safe is the pilot.
Pilots should be sure to give their passengers a comprehensive briefing to stay inside until all movement has stopped.
The Bell 407 helicopter type, to my knowledge, doesn’t lock from the inside, according to George Kaliakmanis, president of the Union of Police Officers of Southeast Attica.
The emphasis of the investigation will now be the pilot’s safety precautions. He told them to wait, did he not?
“The helicopter has two propellers.” There are two that run at 500 and 2500 spins per second, respectively.
Unless he presses a button that stops the propellers after 50 seconds, they continue to spin for nearly 2 minutes after the engine is turned off.
Also keep in mind that due to the speed, the propellers are not visible.