Chelsea football club was in mourning yesterday after a millionaire director was killed in a second match-day helicopter crash involving the club in recent years.

Vice-president Phillip Carter, 44, and three companions including his teenage son, was just a mile away from his destination when the twin-engined Squirrel helicopter crashed in woods in Cambridgeshire.

Mr Carter’s son Andrew, 17, a friend, Jonathan Waller 42, and the pilot, Stephen Holdich, 49, also died.

The crash revived memories of a 1996 crash, also involving a Squirrel, that killed Chelsea’s vice-chairman Matthew Harding — with whom Mr Carter was friendly — and four other men as they returned from a Bolton Wanderers match.

Mr Carter’s party were returning from the Champions League semi-final between Liverpool and Chelsea at Anfield, Liverpool, on Tuesday night. The businessman was one of Chelsea’s eight honorary vice-presidents.

Police said yesterday that they did not have any records of Mayday calls, adding that there were no signs of fire or an explosion.

Experts said that the most likely causes of the nighttime accident were pilot error or mechanical failure.

An Air Accidents Investigation team arrived on the scene in Bedford Purlieus Wood, between Wansford and Duddington, yesterday afternoon. It is understood that the helicopter had been heading for a cricket field landing area at the Haycock Hotel, in Wansford, which is run by Mr Carter’s wife, Judith. Mr Carter, who was named Entrepreneur of the Year 2006, and who leaves a daughter, Natalya, was the co-founder with Mrs Carter, 50, of Carter & Carter, which specialises in providing vocational training.

His wealth was put in last weekend’s Sunday Times Rich List at £92 million. Shares in Carter & Carter were suspended after news of the crash. Mr Carter’s aircraft left John Lennon Airport, Liverpool, at 11pm on Tuesday in good weather. Air traffic controllers lost contact with it shortly before 1am.

Mrs Carter is believed to have contacted the police just before 1.45am to say the helicopter, built in 1986, had failed to land.

Two rescue helicopters from nearby RAF Wittering were scrambled to follow the probable flightpath, using heat-seek-ing equipment. The search was hampered by low cloud and early morning mist and the helicopters returned to their base at about 5am.

Cambridgeshire police said the search restarted at 9am and one hour later the wreckage was found in the woods, little over a mile from Mr Carter’s home, Stibbington Hall, in Thornhaugh.

David Learmount of Flight International magazine said: “They will have to consider mechanical failure but also that this was a nighttime approach in a private helicopter: there are risks associated with that.”

Andrew Carter, who was due to sit his A-levels soon, was a pupil at the £10,000-a-year Stamford School in Stamford, Lincolnshire.

Mr Carter often travelled by helicopter to Chelsea matches with his close friend Mr Waller, described as a debt collector from Market Deeping, Lincolnshire. Mr Waller leaves one daughter, Jodie, 7.

His brothers Adrian and Robert described him yesterday as a “great father and a good son and brother”.

Mr Holdich was the managing director and chief pilot of Atlas Helicopters.

Ian Robertson, the chief executive of Rolls-Royce and a neighbour of Mr Holdich and his partner Wendy Rofe, 50, in Chidham, said that he and his wife Cherie had often flown with him.

He said: “He has flown everywhere — all over the world — including the Antarctic. I just don’t understand how this could have happened.”

Police stalwart

The Twin Squirrel is one of the most popular helicopters in the world. Is it used by police in Britain, Australia, Brazil and the Philippines and America, as well as charter operators

It is made by the Franco-German company Eurocopter, now part of the European planemaking group EADS

It can accommodate a pilot and five passengers

It has a cruising speed of up to 160mph and a range of more than 400 miles

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