BBC Sport editor Dan Roan has been forced to apologize after he was heard describing the ex-model who died in the Leicester City helicopter crash alongside club owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha as the Thai businessman’s “mistress.”
Cameras picked up Roan making the unguarded off-air comments while reporting from Leicester’s King Power stadium, the scene of Saturday night’s crash which killed five people, including club owner Srivaddhanaprabha and his assistant, Nusara Suknamai.
Standing beside the masses off flowers and other tributes to the victims, Roan was heard on a Sky News feed saying: “The mistress who died in the crash… otherwise known as a member of staff…i.e. mistress.
“If you were a billionaire, it’s relatively expected, so we shouldn’t judge,” he added in an apparent joke with others standing near the memorial.
Suknamai, 32, was employed as Srivaddhanaprabha’s assistant and was traveling on board the billionaire’s helicopter when it crashed shortly after take-off from the pitch following Leicester’s Premier League match against West Ham on Saturday night.
Fellow Thai member of statt Kaveporn Punpare was also killed, as were pilot Eric Swaffer and his partner Izabela Roza Lechowicz.
After Roan’s insensitive comments emerged online, the BBC sports editor was forced into an apology, saying “absolutely no offence intended.”