Carter, founder of training firm Carter & Carter, now worth more than £500m, was one of eight honorary vice presidents of Chelsea.

He was travelling back from last night’s semi-final second-leg clash at Anfield to his sprawling country home at Thornhaugh Hall.

Two other men, pilot Stephen Holdich, 49, and Carter’s friend Jonathan Waller, a 42-year-old debt collector, also died in the crash.

The aircraft – call sign G-BYPA – disappeared from radar screens just after midnight after taking off from John Lennon Airport in Liverpool.

Search helicopters from RAF Wittering spent the morning scouring land near Wansford, including forests, farmland, quarries and a landfill site.

The wreckage was found in woodland near the village and investigators from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch spent the day at the scene.

It is thought the helicopter may have been heading for a cricket field landing pad at the Haycock Hotel, in Wansford, which is run by Carter’s wife Judith.

The incident brought tragic echoes of a crash which killed Chelsea vice-chairman Matthew Harding in 1996.

Harding died with four other men when their Twin Squirrel helicopter crashed in Cheshire as they returned from a Bolton Wanderers match.

Carter leaves Judith, with whom he co-founded Carter & Carter, and a teenage daughter.

He held shares worth some £100million in the fast-growing firm after floating it on the stock exchange in 2005.

The company, based in Nottingham, specialises in vocational training, particularly apprenticeships for the vehicle industry.

It employs more than 500 people. Its shares were suspended earlier today at the company’s request.

Carter’s son Andrew is thought to have been in the sixth form at Stamford School, an independent boarding school in Stamford, Lincolnshire.

Helicopter pilot Holdich was the co-owner of operating company Atlas Helicopters, of Lee-on-Solent, Hampshire.

Jack Irvine, of Atlas Helicopters, said Holdich had 20 years’ flying experience. He said staff were “deeply shocked”.

Waller leaves a seven-year-old daughter Jodie, his brother said in a statement at the family home in Market Deeping, Lincolnshire.

Adrian Waller, 48, said their blind mother Shirley, who recently came out of hospital, was “distraught”.

He said: “Jon was a great father to his daughter Jodie. He was also a good son and brother.

“He was also a very loyal Chelsea fan and he will be greatly missed by all his friends and family.”

Waller had been close friends with Carter for more than 20 years and they often travelled to football matches by helicopter.

Residents of Wansford reacted with shock to news of the crash.

Canon Thomas Christie, of the parish church, said the family had moved to Thornhaugh Hall in the last couple of years.

He said: “They spent an amazing amount of money refurbishing it, and doing a very good job of it.”

Mark Haysom, chief executive of the Learning and Skills Council, with which Carter & Carter has contracts worth £44million, said he was “saddened” to hear of Mr Carter’s death.

Craig Phillips, winner of the first Big Brother series, sold his Merseyside building skills firm to Carter & Carter last year. He said: “My thoughts are with Mr Carter’s family.”

Holdich, who lived in Chidham, West Sussex, but was originally from Peterborough, had flown Carter on more than 70 occasions over the past four years, his company said.

A Manchester United fan, cyclist and marathon runner, he had previously worked with Yorkshire Helicopters, Aeromega and Sterling Helicopters.