Moments from disaster
Final seconds of jet in Shoreham fireball horror
locked in a fatal dive, the jet in the Shoreham Airshow tragedy roars just feet above a busy road before impact.
A split second later, the vintage Hawker Hunter was a fireball as it slammed into traffic, killing 11 men.
The dramatic footage, shot by spectators, was shown to a jury yesterday as pilot Andy Hill faced charges of manslaughter by gross negligence. Hill was performing a loop-the-loop stunt in the 1950s jet that was said to be 1,000 feet too low and too slow.
The 54-year-old, who is accused of causing the crash due to ‘pilot error’, lowered his head in the dock as the old Bailey jury was also shown a film from the cockpit revealing the pilot’s alleged ‘catalogue of errors’. Hill could be seen from a GoPro sports camera positioned behind his seat before he lost control of the jet on August 22, 2015. only the roar of the engine can be heard in the footage before the aircraft begins to judder.
Unable to pull out of a dive, it screams low above the road before crashing into three vehicles on the busy A27 in West Sussex.
Relatives of the victims watched quietly as the film showed a pilot’s eye view of the dual carriageway looming larger before the sound of a massive explosion.
Hill was seriously injured after being thrown clear of the cockpit in his seat. The trained RAF instructor, who was a British Air- ways captain at the time, told paramedics who asked what happened: ‘I don’t know.’
Yesterday karim khalil, defending, said Hill had no memory of the crash and ‘may have been suffering cognitive impairment’ due to G-force. He said: ‘We say that this case may not be about pilot error at all because Andy Hill may not have been in full control of all that he was doing.’
only ‘a remarkable pilot’ had not made errors during their careers, said Mr khalil. But prosecutor Tom kark Qc said exposure to Gforce was ‘routine’ for any experienced pilot and Hill’s ‘catalogue of errors’ made a crash ‘inevitable’.
He said the pilot had a history of playing ‘fast and loose’ with flying rules and a ‘cavalier attitude’ towards safety.
Former Royal Navy pilot Jonathon Whaley said Hill committed a ‘cardinal sin’ in failing to execute an escape manoeuvre. Hill denies 11 manslaughter charges, and one count of endangering an aircraft. The trial continues.
‘He was not in full control’