We need answers, say parents of Shoreham Airshow disaster victim

Matt Jones, 24, was killed alongside his colleague Daniele Polito, 23, as they drove home from work when the Hawker Hunter displaying at the airshow smashed into the A27.

As the one-year anniversary of the disaster on August 22 approaches, investigations are continuing into how it happened, with the High Court yet to rule on whether evidence from the plane can be released to the police.

Speaking to The Argus from their home in Littlehampton, Matt Jones’ parents, Hazel and Steve Jones, said the pain of losing their lively, loving son did not get any easier, and they needed answers as to what went wrong.

Mrs Jones said: “I am still very angry that we are a year on and the high court have still not reached a decision in what is going on.

“To me personally it is just unbelievable; how can a judge have to decide whether he is going to release the documents that we need to tell exactly what killed my son. I need an answer. How was Matt killed?

“We will never get over Matt dying – but the longer this goes on, it’s like the books open.”

His father said: “It’s an open wound; it could be two to three years before we have any answers. And what’s to stop it from happening again.”

“And there’s the fact that nobody admits responsibility, nobody has said sorry. It might not make any difference, but it would be nice if somebody said sorry; it does not matter who it is from.”

Speaking to The Argus, Mr and Mrs Jones paid tribute to their adventurous, smart, loving and popular son, who had returned from a year working and travelling in Australia a few months before the crash, and planned to go back there soon.

They recalled how he had left work early to enjoy the hottest day of the year last August 22 when he was killed alongside ten other men either travelling along the A27 or who had stopped to look at the airshow planes.

“I am afraid every day it is just as painful,” said Mr Jones. “It really does not get any better even though it is one year ago."

Mrs Jones said: “We still expect him to come through that door.”

‘WE WILL BE SAD EVERY DAY NOW’

BY ALL accounts, 24-year-old Matt Jones was a young man who lived his life at full volume.

When he wasn’t tearing around Littlehampton in one of his fast cars, he was travelling the world, DJ’ing on his decks, or racing around the back garden with his nieces on his shoulders as they giggled and egged on their beloved uncle Matt.

Yet the last memory his mother has of him, is a quieter, almost imperceptible one: the soft turn of a key in the lock as he opened the front door in the early hours of August 22, 2015.

“He told me he was going to be out for the night but was going to come home at some point to pick up some work clothes,” she recalled.

“So I said, ‘OK I will put your work clothes in the pile with some lunch’.

“I heard the door go and it was exactly half past twelve.

“I heard him put the key in the door and he picked the clothes up.

“And that was it.”

That morning Matt and his colleague Daniele Polito left work early to enjoy the hottest day of the year.

They were killed alongside nine other men when the Hawker Hunter displaying at the Shoreham Airshow crashed down on to the A27.

Nearly one year on, his parents cannot yet bring themselves to clear out his room at the home in Littlehampton where he lived with them all his life.

“It is exactly as it was,” his father, Steve said. “We want to, but we cannot.

“We go in and we say, right, we will start sorting this out, but we just cannot.

“Every time we walk upstairs, there is his door.”

Matt was as an energetic, cheeky, lively boy since the day he was born in Worthing in 1991, his parents recalled.

“He was outgoing and very spirited,” said Mr Jones. “He was adventurous, and very good at football.”

The youngster went to Littlehampton Academy, where he was lively and popular, if something of a handful.

“He was a horror but the teachers loved him,” said his father.

“He was very cheeky; you could not teach him anything.”

“Academically he was very bright,” his mother added. “He was very laid back – everything became easy for him.”

He and older sister Becky spent annual summer holidays together in Spain.

“We would always have open house here for both our kids,” said Mrs Jones.

“So it really was not unusual to open the door and have 20 pairs of trainers here. It was lovely.”

Although he was a younger brother, he showed a protective side towards his sister Becky, his parents recalled, even more so when she became a mother to two young daughters.

“They had great fun because they got on so well and they would just be young and bold,” his father recalled.

“We were really lucky they were such great mates,” said Mrs Jones. “They loved each other so much.

“Especially when Becky’s children came along; because she was on her own he really was her rock “The little girls adored him; they took it very hard.

“He always had time for the girls.

“He was forever playing with them.”

“No-one else got a look-in when uncle Matt came,” his father agreed.

Keen to earn some money and travel, Matt left school at 17 and started doing exactly that.

He had his driving licence within weeks of his birthday and developed a taste for fast cars, including a Nissan Skyline that he imported from Japan.

“He always wanted to achieve,” his mother said.

“He always wanted to do something.

“He was always waiting for the next day to get something else done.”

After a few years working for Southern Water, Matt left for a year in Australia in 2014, sticking it out even after he and his friend were robbed within a few days of arriving.

“He worked for it; he took chances all the time,” said his father.

“He was like, I can come home or I can take a chance.

“He bought a ticket up to the mining towns where he knew a girl and the next thing we knew he had a job in a bar there.”

After many adventures in Australia – including a narrow escape from sharks and working on a chicken farm – Matt came home in June 2015.

He planned to touch base with his friends and family and make some more money before going back.

Everyone was pleased to see him, his parents recalled.

“He lit the room up; he had the most fun,” said his mother.

And he was always ‘up’.

“He just loved life,” his father added. “Which is the tragedy.”

On the morning of August 22, 2015, Mrs Jones had gone shopping with Becky and her granddaughters in Portsmouth.

Early in the afternoon, Becky had a text message about the awful crash in Shoreham. They switched on the news.

“I don’t know if it was mother’s intuition, a sixth sense, or what,” Mrs Jones said.

“I immediately said that Matt would have been on that road at that time.”

When she couldn’t get through to Matt on his mobile, she rang the police and the hospital to give them the registration of his car but was told it was too early and they would get back to her.

An agonising wait followed.

“We just sat and watched the news from the scene over and over again,” Mrs Jones recalled.

“Even to the point that I got a magnifying glass and tried to look at the wreckage to see if I could see a silver car.

“It seems ridiculous now that I was trying that.

“But I just kept ringing and ringing his phone and I just knew he would always answer the phone if he got a call from me.”

His sister put out frantic messages on Facebook and several of Matt’s friends went to Shoreham to see what they could find out. One learned police were going to see Mr and Mrs Jones.

“We knew they only come round to tell you one thing,” Mrs Jones recalled.

“They arrived around midnight.

“They told us what we had to know then we went straight to Becky’s.

“Quite honestly we were just in a state of shock.

“The girls were asleep and the three of us just sat there, bawling our eyes out.”

The days following the crash were a daze.

Friends and family rallied around to help, and have continued to do so.

“We are so grateful to everyone who has helped us,” said Mrs Jones.

“We were absolutely overwhelmed.”

Nearly one year on, and the pain of losing their son remains just as severe, worsened by the lack of answers over exactly how the disaster happened.

“Every day it is just as painful; it really does not get any better,” said Mr Jones.

“First thing in the morning, it’s the first thing we think about. That’s every single day.”

“It does not go,” Mrs Jones agreed. “It does not matter what you are doing – working, shopping, whatever you are doing.

“It is in the back of your mind.

“We still expect him to come through that door.”

Mr Jones agreed: “Last week I heard the next-door neighbour play some music and as I walked in, I said ‘Matt’s home’.”

There have been moments of light. A friend has named his new son after Matt.

Becky is due to get married next year, a joyous occasion tinged with sadness.

“Matt should have been best man,” Mrs Jones said.

“He should have been there.”

“It just takes all the joy out of everything, whatever we do,” added Mr Jones.

Asked what they see when they think about the future, the couple replied immediately, in unison: “We don’t,” they said.

Mrs Jones added: “I think we have just always said, we will always be sad, every day of our lives.”