FAMILY FURY AS PILOT WALKS FREE
Disaster at airshow left 11 dead... but he is cleared of manslaughter
GRIEVING families of the Shoreham Airshow victims lashed out yesterday as pilot Andrew Hill walked free from court.
Relatives of the 11 men who died said they were ‘devastated’ by the jury’s not guilty verdicts.
They wept and shook their heads in disbelief as Mr Hill, 54, was cleared of acting recklessly at the August 2015 air display.
His vintage Hawker Hunter jet exploded into a fireball on the A27 in West Sussex after he failed to complete an exhibition loop.
But Sue and Phil Grimstone, whose 23-yearold son Matthew died as he drove past the airfield, said: ‘There seems to be no justice for our son Matthew and all 11 men who died in such tragic circumstances.
‘We were always told by the police that to prove guilty due to gross negligence the bar was set very high. Despite having compelling evidence from the cockpit footage and expert witnesses, it was not enough.
‘Matthew had no interest in air shows, he could not have cared less. Knowing he died because an aircraft was being flown for fun, for the entertainment of others makes it even harder to bear.’
Leslye Polito, whose son Daniele, 23, died after leaving work early, said she will never recover from her loss. She said: ‘I feel extremely disappointed, very upset and primarily let down by the justice system when someone who has clearly made some very bad errors of judgment is allowed to walk free.’
The seven-week Old Bailey trial heard Mr Hill – the first pilot to cause the deaths of spectators in more than six decades – had a history of taking risks and often ‘played fast and loose with the rules’. Prosecutors claimed he risked lives at another display a year before when he flew so low spectators could feel the heat of the jet’s exhausts. Jurors heard he had a ‘ cavalier’ attitude to safety and that he had committed a ‘cardinal sin’ at Shoreham by making a conscious decision to carry out the loop when he was far too low.
But Mr Hill denied the accusations and claimed that he was suffering from ‘cognitive impairment’ brought on by hypoxia – when the brain is deprived of oxygen – possibly due to the effects of G-force, which caused him to lose control of the jet mid-flight.
Thrown clear of the crash, he later told medics he ‘blacked out in the air’. The former RAF instructor – who was a BA captain at the time – had a miraculous escape as the cockpit of the 1950s jet was torn from the fuselage and he was thrown from the seat into a ditch. Among his injuries, he suffered
fractures to his ribs and lower spine and a collapsed lung.
A 2017 report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch found the disaster was caused by pilot error after the jet was too slow and too low during the loop manoeuvre.
But Mr Hill told the court that he took ‘a very structured, disciplined approach’ to flying. ‘Most of the last three years have been spent trying to resolve what happened,’ he said. ‘I caused a dreadful tragedy to loads of people. I was the pilot who was in charge of the aircraft.’
The former RAF instructor, who claims to have no memory of the crash, said after he was cleared: ‘I am truly sorry for the part I played in their deaths, and it is they I will remember for the rest of my life.’
Mr Hill also read out the names of the 11 victims – either motorists or those who had stopped to watch – who died instantly in the crash. They were wedding chauffeur Maurice Abrahams, 76, retired engineer Graham Mallinson, 72, window cleaner and builder Mark Trussler, 54, and cycling friends Dylan Archer, 42, and 26-year-old Richard Smith.
The other victims were NHS manager Tony Brightwell, 53, grandfather Mark Reeves, 53, Worthing United footballers Matthew Grimstone and Jacob Schilt, both 23, personal trainer Matt Jones, 24 and Daniele Polito, 23.
But Mr Reeves’s nephew Oliver Morriss said the not guilty verdicts left ‘complete devastation’ in their wake. He warned that the defence of cognitive impairment could have ‘far-reaching consequences’ as the manoeuvre Mr Hill was undertaking was not unusual.
Caroline Schilt, who lost her son Jacob, told Sky News: ‘We all felt that Andrew Hill had to take responsibility for what happened.
‘And perhaps his lawyers had told him not to say anything about any sort of remorse, but it just seemed almost like he was lecturing us rather than... taking responsibility.’
Mr Hill was unanimously cleared of 11 counts of manslaughter by gross negligence after just seven hours of deliberations.
Trial judge Mr Justice Edis praised the dignity of the grieving families, adding: ‘I can see that you are upset as you are entitled to be. But despite being upset you have behaved in a way which you deserve full credit for.’
Detective Inspector Jon Fanner, of Sussex Police, defended the decision to bring charges following ‘a l o n g, complex and unique investigation’.