Shoreham Airshow inquest hears pilot's flying was 'exceptionally bad'

The families of the victims hugged each other and cried after the senior coroner said their loved ones died following a “series of gross errors” by pilot Andrew Hill.

Mr Hill, who was acquitted of manslaughter following an Old Bailey trial, was not in court to hear the coroner say the risk to life should have been clear and obvious.

Senior coroner Penelope Schofield said she did not need to be an expert to know the pilot was too slow going into the fatal loop and too low when he reached the top.

“The aircraft failed to reach the height required by a significant margin,” she said. “This was not a small misjudgement.”

Mr Hill carried on with the loop rather than abort or try to fly out of it, the coroner said.

• Read more: Coroner concludes men who died in Shoreham Airshow crash were unlawfully killed

“This goes beyond an error of judgement,” she said.

“Risk to life would have been clear and obvious.

“This was not a close call.

“There was no difficult judgement to make here.

“It should have been clear and obvious he was too low.”

The path of the loop brought the plane in line with the A27 where all 11 men died.

“His flying was exceptionally bad,” the coroner said.

Mr Hill was flying the vintage Hawker Hunter jet when it crashed onto the A27 on August 22, 2015.

The jet came out of a loop-the-loop manoeuvre too low and smashed into cars along the packed main road, erupting into a deadly fireball.

Hundreds looked on in terror as the aircraft flashed past destroying everything in its path.

Mr Hill spent the next month in hospital.

Sussex Police charged Mr Hill with 11 counts of manslaughter in March 2018.

He was acquitted after a trial at the Old Bailey a year later after a jury heard he had suffered a temporary cognitive impairment.

The AAIB reviewed their investigation into the crash and found no evidence to support his claim.

Speaking outside the court, Mr Hill said: “I am truly sorry for the part I played in their deaths, and it is all I will remember for the rest of my life.”

Anthony Brightwell, 53, from Hove, Daniele Polito, 23, from Goring-by-Sea, Dylan Archer, 42, from Brighton, Jacob Schilt, 23, from Brighton, James Graham Mallinson, 72, from Newick, Mark Reeves, 53, from Seaford, Mark Trussler, 54, from Worthing, Matthew Grimstone, 23, from Brighton, Matthew Jones, 24, from Littlehampton, Maurice Abrahams, 76, from Brighton and Richard Smith, 26, from Hove all died on August 22, 2015.

They were all taken too soon, the coroner said.