Coroner urges safety rethink

Post-mortem examinations found that Mr Sandhu, from Essex, died instantly from blunt head injuries and Mr Forster, from West Sussex, died from torso injuries.

Coroner Michael Oakley noted that the plane was not carrying parachutes, something the pilots were under no legal obligation to do. He said: “This plane was not carrying a parachute. That’s something I consider does need perhaps looking at. “Similarly, the issue has been made with regard to the specific spin training. There’s the issue that every aircraft may have its own idiosyncrasies and clearly this aircraft does have that.” the aircraft at any point during the flight. Given that the aircraft may have been in the process of recovering from the spin in the very last moments of the descent, it is possible that an incorrect spin recovery technique was used as the requirement to move the control stick progressively forward is a critical element of the spin recovery action in the Slingsby T67.

“This was not a requirement for spin recovery in the Tutor or Tucano; aircraft on which the pilot had previously received spin training. It is possible that if the pilot initially adopted the technique applicable to those aircraft, the spin recovery would have been delayed.”

It added that the weather was “suitable” for the intended acrobatics.

On the day of the crash, one eyewitness said she saw the plane “spiralling downwards in a corkscrew movement” as she drove near Castle Howard.

In December, an inquest into the deaths recorded a verdict of “accidental death”, with “pilot error” and not a mechanical reason likely for the failure to pull out of the spin.

Mr Sandhu and Mr Forster were both trainee pilots at RAF Linton on Ouse, where they flew Tucano planes. They had chartered the Firefly privately from Full Sutton airfield near York.