Kentish Express Ashford & District
Professor crashed plane on purpose
TRAINEE PILOT, 64, STOLE AIRCRAFT FROM AIRPORT AFTER TERMINAL CANCER DIAGNOSIS
A trainee pilot given only three months to live died after purposely crashing a stolen plane into a field, an inquest has heard.
Dr Christopher Woollard stole the light aircraft with the intention of crashing following a terminal cancer diagnosis.
The computer science professor had driven to Rochester Airport for a pre-arranged flying lesson on the morning of Friday, September 10 last year.
A keen trainee pilot, he had just under 75 hours of flying under his belt since starting in March 2019.
About four hours of that experience involved flying solo.
The inquest at the Archbishop’s Palace in Maidstone heard Dr Woollard’s flying instructor had given him the keys to conduct pre-flight checks as a normal part of training.
However, after conducting the
regular checks, the 64-year-old got into the plane and started taxiing towards the runway, radioing air traffic control and asking to speak to his instructor.
A statement from investigating officer DS Jay Barrett said that while waiting for his instructor to radio him back, the retired university lecturer accelerated and took off without warning.
Over the radio, he informed those listening that he had been diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer and had only been given three months to live.
He then gave his instructor access to his bank accounts to pay back damages for the plane and clearly expressed that he wanted to kill himself, saying that he would find an unpopulated area to crash.
It is then believed that he shut his radio and the plane’s tracking system off.
A large-scale search was launched, with the RAF distress and diversion unit drafted in to find the plane, locating it over the water just east of Lydd and south of Folkestone at about 10.44am.
However, at just before midday, the plane – a Cessna 172 Skyhawk – came down in a field between Ruckinge and Bilsington on Romney Marsh in a “descending left turn”, striking a hedge and crashing into the ground.
Shortly afterwards, Colin Bodie was travelling down Tar Pot Lane just after noon when he spotted the wreckage of the plane nearby.
The inquest heard that Mr Bodie, his niece and her partner managed to pull Dr Woollard out of the cockpit to try and give him first aid while phoning the emergency services, but he was declared dead at 12.44pm.
Investigators searched his home in Rochester Close, Sidcup, and found his will left on his kitchen table.
Assistant coroner Katrina Hepburn said that “on the balance of probability it is far more likely than not that when Dr Woollard took the plane down in the field he intended to take his own life”.
Ruling the death a suicide, Ms Hepburn said: “I would like to offer everyone my most sincere condolences for this loss.”