Investigators found flaws in Shoreham jet’s design in 1998
AIR crash experts warned years ago of a fatal design flaw that could destroy the Hunter Hawker jet which crashed at the Shoreham Air Show.
The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) warned in 1998 that it had discovered a flaw which could have led to more than 20 crashes and killed another pilot at the Top Gear test track.
They found that flicking a single switch in the cockpit while the throt- tles were still open could result in an almost instantaneous destruction of the engine.
It comes as an eighth person has been named as a victim of the Shoreham air show crash. Amateur pilot Tony Brightwell, 53, from Hove, East Sussex, was among at least 11 victims to have died when the Hawker Hunter jet crashed on the A27 a week ago.
A report by the AAIB highlighted the design flaw in the jet after it studied 22 crashes between 1980 and 1992. It found that if the aircraft’s throttle was not closed when the pilot flicked the switch controlling the fuel pump, too much fuel was forced into the engine, resulting in its destruction.
The report was published following the death of a 42-year-old pilot in a Hawker Hunter in June 1998 at Dunsfold airfield in Surrey where the BBC films Top Gear.
The report said the pilots in the 22 incidents may have experienced engine malfunctions and in a bid to rectify the problem had taken a course of action which led to the plane overfuelling – which would have caused it to be destroyed in a matter of seconds.
The report said: “It was concluded… that the most probable reason for the engine turbine failure was that the pilot may have operated the HPPIS [switch] momentarily to the Isolate position, before closing the throttle, and then returned it to the Normal position.
“Such selection of the HPPIS, without full closure of the throttle beforehand, had caused similar turbine failures in two previous cases on Hunter aircraft during RAF operation, with experienced pilots.”
Last night Lara Ashby, Mr Brightwell’s fiancée, said her partner was indulging his twin passions of planes and cycling when tragedy struck.
“He was the love of my life. I watched him cycle off into the sun on his treasured Ridgeback bike to watch the air show at Shoreham for a couple of hours, but he never came home.”