The owner of Leicester City football club, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, Izabela Lechowicz’s husband and pilot Eric Swaffer and two co-workers; Nursara Suknamai i Kaveporn Punparewere, were also among the casualties.
In an official statement, Leicester City said that the club’s thoughts were with “the Srivaddhanaprabha family and the families of all those on-board at this time of unspeakable loss”.
The Polish embassy in the UK released a statement in which they said that “with great sadness, we received the news about the death of Izabela Lechowicz in the Leicester catastrophe. She was a great pilot, winner of the #Polka100 contest. It contributed to the creation of a positive image of Poland in the UK.”
She was a great pilot, winner of the #Polka100 contest. It contributed to the creation of a positive image of Poland in the UK
Lechowicz arrived in the UK in 1997. After meeting her husband, Eric Swaffer, she started a piloting class and became a pilot. She was one of the 18 Polish women to be nominated for the #Polka100 organized by the Polish embassy on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Polish women gaining voting rights.
Lechowicz also promoted the heroic actions of Polish pilots in the 1940 Battle of Britain. “I sometimes remind people of Squadron 303 and how Poles defended the skies above England,” she is cited in the embassy’s statement.
