A TELEVISION programme has raised questions about whether the fatal helicopter crash in Bournemouth in March was an accident.

Stephen Curtis, a millionaire businessman with links to the Russian oil industry, died along with Bournemouth pilot Max Radford in the crash on March 3.

Rumours of a conspiracy have been circulating ever since.

Channel Four News claimed on Friday that Mr Curtis had contacted the National Crime Squad days before his death to offer his services as an informant.

The programme claimed Mr Curtis had told friends he was afraid for his life in the weeks before the crash.

Mr Curtis's biggest business client was said to be Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's richest man and an opponent of President Vladimir Putin.

When Mr Khodorkovsky was arrested on suspicion of tax fraud last year, Mr Curtis went from being his legal adviser to managing director of Menatep Limited, which holds a 44 per cent stake in the Russian oil giant Yukos.

Channel Four News said: "We have learned from friends of Stephen Curtis that he was receiving death threats on the phone. He did not like people to know his travel plans.

"They told us he was even considering selling his London penthouse - it was too well known - and that just before he died he made it clear to those around him that he was increasingly in fear of his life."

The Air Accidents Investigation Branch has yet to publish its findings on the accident.

First published: April 26