Shoreham air crash victims remembered
ELEVEN altar candles were lit by victims’ families to remember those killed in the Shoreham air crash.
The names of those who died when a vintage Hawker Hunter jet crashed on to the A27 in West Sussex during the Shoreham Air Show last August 22 were also read out at yesterday’s church service.
Prayers were said for the victims and their families, marking a day described as one that “started like any other day, but will now always be remembered by so many as a day like no other”.
Some of the relatives and friends of the 11 men who died attended the service. They included Leslye Polito, whose 23-year-old son Daniele died. She said: “The last year I couldn’t put into words. It’s been a roller coaster, a living nightmare.”
Caroline Schilt, whose son Jacob, 23, also died, said of the service: “It was amazing to organise something like this and to come together.
“It’s lovely for the families to share in this awful thing, in a strange sort of way.”
The service,was held at the St Mary de Haura Church in Shoreham
In an address by the Rev Terry Stratford, he said the community still shared a sense of loss and bewilderment.
He spoke of the poignancy of the first anniversary of the crash, and praised the response of 999 crews called to deal with the immediate aftermath.
The service was held two days before the first anniversary of the crash, which happened when the 1950s plane failed to pull out of a loop-the-loop manoeuvre during the air show.