An initial investigation into the Shoreham airshow crash has found that the Hawker Hunter plane that hit the ground and killed 11 people last month appeared to be working normally and responding to the pilot’s commands.
The report said the pilot, Andy Hill, started the attempted loop-the-loop manoeuvre that led to the crash at a height of 200 feet (60 metres) , below what experts believe is a safe minimum.
The interim report issued by the Air Accident Investigations Branch (AAIB) on Friday said two cockpit video cameras had been recovered, giving a partial view of the pilot and the instrument panel, which appeared to show that the plane was working normally and responding to the pilot’s controls.
It said: “To date, no abnormal indications have been identified. Throughout the flight, the aircraft appeared to be responding to the pilot’s control inputs.” The report said the plane had been properly checked and there appeared to be nothing unusual when its engine started.
The 11 victims were killed on the nearby A27, some watching the airshow and some driving or cycling, when the plane crashed after its attempted stunt. The pilot, who sustained serious injuries, was thrown clear of the cockpit in his seat after the impact, but investigators are still trying to ascertain if he had tried to eject.
The aircraft broke into four main pieces which eventually came to rest close together 243 metres from the initial crash site, the report said.
Investigators continue to examine the wreckage of the vintage plane, most of which has been recovered and taken to the AAIB base at Farnborough. Some debris is still being recovered from around the A27.
The AAIB’s interim report does not draw conclusions, but the evidence it lays out appears to support the suspicions of industry experts that the plane was flying too low before it started to attempt the stunt.
The report said the Hunter began its manoeuvre at a height of 200 feet, before flying up for the start of its loop. “During the descent, the aircraft accelerated and the nose was raised, but the aircraft did not achieve level flight before it struck the westbound carriageway of the A27.”
David Learmount, a former pilot and the operations and safety editor at Flight Global, said the figures in the report confirmed his initial impressions that the plane had been flown too low.
He said: “He went into the manoeuvre very low. It was not wise. Most people would go into that manoeuvre at 500ft. You intend to come out at the same height you went in, especially as a display pilot, otherwise it looks funny.
“The most common way that display pilots kill themselves is by going into a vertical manoeuvre and coming out of it lower than they went into it.
“It’s terribly easy to make a really minor misjudgement in a manoeuvre like that. If you haven’t left us enough room for error, that’s fatal.”
The final report with investigators’ conclusions is expected early next year, and a full inquest is expected to take place next June. Restrictions have been placed on airshows after the disaster, and there have been calls for stunt flying over land to be banned.
