Stephen Curtis

Stephen Curtis and Max Radford died after their helicopter crashed.

However it was thought that they might have been killed by Russian agents that had targeted Stephen Curtis, who was an exiled Russian.

Stephen Curtis was reported to have told a friend sometime before he died:

The helicopter crashed near Bournemouth Airport on 3 March 2004. Stephen Curtis had boarded the Augusta A109E helicopter, flown by Max Radford, at Battersea Heliport, headed for Bournemouth, but it crashed on the approach to the airport, it being noted that there was bad weather at the time.

It was heard that Stephen Curtis had received death threats and had had his phone tapped.

Their inquest returned verdicts of accidental death.

The Coroner said:

However, an investigation returned a verdict of accidental death, blaming pilot error.  The Air Accidents Investigation Branch said that they found no evidence of sabotage to the helicopter and ruled that Max Radford must have become disorientated when the weather worsened, it being added that he had flown into cloud.

A source said:

It was said that pilot disorientation was a common phenomenon when helicopters encountered bad weather.

It was also heard that Max Radford's understanding of the Augusta A109E helicopter was limited, with an instructor stating that he had come in for training on the difference between the Augusta A109 and the newer Augusta A109E, but that his understanding of the basic helicopter was limited and that he couldn't as such explain the differences. It was said that his confidence exceeded his competence.

It was also noted that he was not instrument-rated, which meant he was not deemed capable of flying without visibility.

Another expert said that in their opinion all pilots of the Augusta A109 should be instrument rated, but that it was not a legal requirement. The expert added that he was concerned about pilots without ideal experience being hired to fly complex aircraft belonging to private owners.

However, it was noted that Max Radford had been deemed competent to fly the Agusta after his training.

However, Stephen Curtis's friends called for the investigation into his death to be reopened.

It was said that the Augusta A109E helicopter was new and had the latest navigational aids and claimed that the weather was not that bad. His friends said that Max Radford was very experienced and had done the trip many times.

A friend said:

A friend of Max Radford said that they thought that he must have been shot down and friends of his called for the investigation to be reopened following the poisonings in Salisbury in order to clear his name. The friend said that they could not be sure what happened, but suspected foul play.

Another friend said:

Stephen Curtis had been an oil tycoon, being the managing director of Menatep group which had a controlling stake in Yukos Oil. He had had offices in Mayfair and lived in a 19th century castle on the Isle of Portland in Dorset.

Although the inquest and investigation concluded that the helicopter crashed without suspicious circumstances, it was noted that the case had all the ingredients there of an espionage thriller and that it had become shrouded in conspiracy theories.

Stephen Curtis had been a friend of Stephen Moss who died from a heart attack in September 2003. Stephen Moss had been involved in the Devonia Agreement, a controversial financial deal involving Russian oligarch Boris Berezovsky who was found hanged in his bathroom in 2013.

It was said that the death of Stephen Moss was:

It was reported that US intelligence agencies suspected that both Stephen Moss and Stephen Curtis were assassinated, with their deaths being linked to Russia.