Aerospace aficionados will know that a popular air show celebrating anniversary of the Battle of Britain takes place every year at Shoreham Airport, near Brighton, Sussex, in Southern England. On this 75th Anniversary year, several 1940s-era vintage aircraft were set to fly at the event on 22 August 2015 including Spitfires, Hurricanes, a Blenheim bomber, and even a Junkers Ju 52 German transport. But all the arrangements were for nothing. For, in a tragic accident during the early part of the air show, a 1950s two-seat Hawker Hunter T7 fighter jet crashed in a fireball engulfing a section of the main A27 arterial road between Brighton and Worthing. In doing so it killed 11 people in cars held up in the air show induced traffic jam with several others being injured. The pilot, Andy Hill, 51, who had apparently been flying the plane as a favour for the originally booked pilot, somehow survived the crash but was critically injured.
A full investigation is underway to determine whether the accident was caused by pilot error or by some technical fault. Either way, it seems likely that future flying displays at air shows such as Shoreham will be banned from overflying congested main roads. As it is, for the time being the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has banned all vintage jet aircraft from performing aerobatics. While this seemed a knee-jerk reaction to some, compared to piston aircraft, jets are known to be less responsive and recoverable in the event of an anomaly or dangerous situation (jet aircraft usually have a slower thrust response than piston aircraft due to the slow jet engine spool up. They are also generally heavier aircraft.).
Eyewitness personal account of the crash by David Todd:
Your correspondent had just arrived after a very long hour-and-a-half wait in a traffic jam on the same bit of road that was later struck by the aircraft. As he drove down the off ramp and onto the air show entrance slipway on that baking hot day, he noted that some families had cheekily put up deck chairs to watch the show for free from the end of the runway, despite signs having been put up warning them not to do so. Your correspondent later wondered if they got out alive?
Having parked up his car in the badly organised parking field, your correspondent grabbed his binoculars in order to see the two seat version of Hawker Hunter (one of his favourites) which had just flown over. This writer was surprised how fast the Hunter T7 had pulled up into a vertical zoom climb in order to perform a loop-the-loop aerobatic manoeuvre at a very low altitude. In doing so it appeared to make partial roll as if to change the plane of the loop, probably bleeding off some of its energy and velocity as it did so. Your correspondent could hear himself saying: “Surely this pilot must realise he not flying a (higher thrust) Lightning?”
The Hunter then arced over at the apogee of a loop-the-loop manoeuvre at what seemed too low an altitude for it to work and this writer was half expecting it to roll horizontally at the top to finish it off as an Immelman turn-style half loop. But it carried on, and as the jet dived downwards on the second half of the loop, showing up the aircraft’s beautiful swept wing lines as it did so, it was now getting perilously close to the ground. At this point, your correspondent heard himself predictively saying: “He is not going to make it.”
The piloted jet almost proved this analysis wrong as it attempted to pull up in order to complete the loop, even managing to level out just above the ground with its nose starting to pitch upwards. However this thrust and direction change was too late for the Hunter as the vertical component of its motion was still going downward, the apparent result of an aerodynamic stall. The jet aircraft struck the ground belly first and exploded on impact into what looked like an elongated orange/yellow fireball in the distance.
“Told you so,” this correspondent muttered to himself in a self-congratulatory way before turning away, ashamed at his callous remark. For as he did so, a pall of smoke rose over the end of the airfield signifying that somebody’s son or somebody’s daughter was probably dead.
As your correspondent turned to look back, in a sideways glance he then saw the bizarre and somewhat disturbing sight of a family just settling into their picnic on deck chairs next to their car. Had they not realised that death and destruction had just taken place only five hundred metres away or so?
To wake them up, your correspondent, posed the question he already knew the answer to:
“Did you see that Hunter jet has just crashed?”
This soon broke the spell of their nice day out at the air show, but at least this family was now aware of the disaster that would prevent them from leaving Shoreham for several hours to come.
And at least they were still alive.
The fatality total due to this accident has been confirmed as being 11 dead and. as such, it ranks as one of the worst air display accidents in the UK, the worst being the DH110 fighter prototype crash at the Farnborough air show in 1952 which killed 29. That particular air display crash was witnessed by your correspondent’s late father all those years ago.
About an hour or so after the Hawker Hunter impacted, a De Havilland Sea Vixen, coincidently the twin-boom fighter developed from the DH110, flew past Shoreham in salute, with the soon-to-be-grounded 1950s-designed Vulcan jet bomber flying by a little while later, their own aerobatic displays having been cancelled indefinitely.
All of us at Seradata give our condolences to the families and friends of those who lost their lives or who were injured by the crash.
Update on 5 September 2015: After examining cockpit camera footage showing the instrument panel, the UK Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) has come to the preliminary conclusion that the aircraft was working satisfactorily before the accident but that the pilot had initiated the loop-the-loop manoeuvre at an altitude of only 200 feet, well below the 500 feet minimum specified for such a manoeuvre.
