Airshow carnage pilot was f lying too low and too slow
Victims’ families slam Shoreham as ‘disaster waiting to happen’
‘Safety rules are inadequate’
The Shoreham Airshow disaster pilot was going too slow, too low and may have forgotten which plane he was flying, investigators said yesterday.
Former RAF pilot Andy hill faces potential manslaughter charges after a report revealed a string of blunders led him to smash his vintage jet into a busy bypass, killing 11 people.
Investigators also launched a scathing attack on the ‘ineffective’ risk assessment and public protection plans by the show’s organisers and aviation regulators which they said resulted in the high death toll in the August 2015 crash.
Last night victims’ families branded the crash a ‘disaster waiting to happen’.
Mr hill survived, but has no recollection of what happened after being dragged from the burning wreckage of the 1955 hawker hunter, which exploded when it smashed into the A27, sending its shell hurtling along the roadway careering into vehicles.
But after interviewing him seven times and analysing footage from two cockpit cameras, investigators found several ‘credible explanations’ for his failings as he attempted to perform a loop the loop during the West Sussex display.
Mr hill, 52, may have misread his instruments, or simply not have read them at all because he was distracted or because of glare, the Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB) report found.
The speed and thrust of the hunter jet were also ‘very similar’ to another less powerful aircraft that the pilot had flown during displays in the run up to the Shoreham event, AAIB principal inspector Julian Firth said.
‘A possible error path was that the pilot recalled the wrong numbers, essentially mixing up the two aircraft,’ he added.
This may have led Mr hill to approach the manoeuvre at an altitude of 185ft, rather than the recommended 500ft. he was also going too slowly to reach the required 3,500ft at the top of the loop to avoid hitting the ground, only getting up to 2,700ft. The pilot, from Sandon, hertfordshire, was also not trained to abort the stunt when it began to go wrong, the report said.
Sussex Police, who are investigating the accident, which also injured 16, yesterday said they hope to submit a file to the Crown Prosecution Service to consider prosecution by June.
Thousands of people had gathered at Shoreham Airshow when the hunter crashed, hitting at least four cars.
Air investigators also concluded that the ‘devastatingly’ high death toll was because there were ‘ineffective’ controls in place to protect the public. ‘No organisation or individual considered all the hazards associated with the aircraft’s displays, what could go wrong, who might be affected and what could be done to minimise the risks,’ the report said.
The Civil Aviation Authority also had no means of determining the safety of displays it approved other than by attending them.
But inspectors visited less than 3 per cent of shows it approved the year before the Shoreham crash, and just 7 per cent in the whole of 2015. The investigation concluded: ‘The CAA had not established an acceptable level of safety performance for display flying.’
Victims’ families yesterday expressed their anger at the CAA and airshow organisers.
Sue and Phil Grimstone, whose 23-year-old Worthing United footballer son Matthew died as he travelled to a match, said: ‘Apart from anything that the pilot may have got wrong it is very evident the Civil Aviation Authority and the Shoreham Airshow organisers have got much to answer for.
‘Rules laid down by the CAA were quite clearly inadequate and those that were there were, in some cases, not fully adhered to by the airshow organisers.’
Caroline Schilt, the mother of fellow Worthing player and victim Jacob Schilt, 23, said: ‘We are angry with the Civil Aviation Authority because their rules are simply inadequate.
‘Also we cannot believe the pilot was not trained in an exit manoeuvre if the manoeuvre went wrong – that was quite shocking.’
The investigators have made 31 safety recommendations over improving airshow safety.
The CAA said it would act on these as a ‘priority’ and was ‘fully committed’ to ensuring airshows are conducted safely.