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Airshow crash: "It was like a war movie.. "

Courtesy of the AFP via the Oz:

Shoreham Airshow crash: Pilot Andy Hill fights for life as seven killed

• The Australian
  
• August 24, 2015 12:00AM
  

European correspondent
London

A Hawker Hunter jet crash-landed into a busy road in Sussex, killing 7. Source: Lee Allwright
The death toll from the plane crash has risen to 11, with the number of victims expected to rise further once investigators bring in a crane to lift the wreckage of the plane.

Sussex Assistant Chief Constable Steve Barry said police were keeping an open mind about possible victims of the crash as worried relatives contacted them.

“This has been an enormously traumatic incident and our thoughts are with everyone who has been affected, from those who have suffered bereavement, to those in the local community, who are deeply shocked,” Barry said. “The scene itself is incredibly large. A lot of specially trained officers are sifting, as we speak, so we do need to keep an open mind, but from what we have seen at this stage it is possible that we will find more fatalities.”

A pilot was fighting for his life last night after his vintage fighter jet crashed on a busy road in ­England, killing seven people.

Occupants of four cars, including a wedding limousine, and two cyclists were killed instantly in a stream of fire that engulfed the coastal road in southern England.

The highly experienced pilot, Andy Hill, was in a critical condition after the cockpit broke away from the main wreckage when the plane stalled in a loop-the-loop at the popular Shoreham Airshow in West Sussex.

The death toll from the plane crash has risen to 11, with the number of victims expected to rise further once investigators bring in a crane to lift the wreckage of the plane.

Sussex Assistant Chief Constable Steve Barry said police were keeping an open mind about possible victims of the crash as worried relatives contacted them.

“This has been an enormously traumatic incident and our thoughts are with everyone who has been affected, from those who have suffered bereavement, to those in the local community, who are deeply shocked,” Barry said. “The scene itself is incredibly large. A lot of specially trained officers are sifting, as we speak, so we do need to keep an open mind, but from what we have seen at this stage it is possible that we will find more fatalities.”

Onlookers could do little for the 11 people confirmed to have died in the fireball just across from the airfield. A total of 14 people were injured, some with burns.

Sussex police were scouring the blackened area for any other victims last night. It was unclear if the limousine had wedding party passengers. Sussex police Superintendent Jane Derrick said all of the victims were killed on the road and warned there could be more casualties.

A passenger in a vehicle on the road, Jasper Vincent, likened the disaster to a war movie.

“It was like it was about to strafe us and two cars behind us were hit by the fireball and debris … By the grace of God we got away from it, we put the foot down to speed away,’’ Mr Vincent told London radio.

Stephen Jones was watching the display. “He made a quick pass along the crowd line and pulled up into a loop and as he came out of it, I thought, ‘This is wrong, you’re too low, you’re not going to make this’,” he said.

“He just disappeared behind some low trees at the edge of the airfield and then there was a huge explosion.’’

The Hunter Hawker aircraft, first commissioned by the Royal Air Force in 1955, brushed trees as Mr Hill, a British Airways pilot, desperately tried to keep the nose of the aircraft up.

But it collided with a Vauxhall Corsa on the road, spewing ­aviation fuel across the A27 and enveloping the wedding car, a Daimler DS420, which was travelling on the opposite side of the road. One witness said: “I could see the pilot fighting, fighting, fighting until the last second. It’s a sad day for a lot of people.’’

Emergency fire crews were on the scene immediately and dragged the pilot away from the wreckage.

A fellow pilot in the Tiger Nine display at the airshow, David Wildridge, said Mr Hill was a former Harrier pilot — “one of the best of the best” — and was well known and loved.

Several of the aircraft performed a missing man formation over the crash site before organisers cancelled the two-day event.

The crash occurred just outside the dormitories of a private school, Lancing College, which had insisted the airshow be held in the school holidays to minimise danger to pupils.

The tragedy is the third aerial display accident this year, but none have been as deadly.
Earlier this month former RAF jet pilot Kevin Whyman was killed at the CarFest event in Cheshire, and in April an expert aerobatic pilot, David Jenkins, was killed in an Edge 360 plane when launching the Old Buckenham Airshow in Norfolk.

Eight years ago at the Shoreham Airshow James Bond stuntman Brian Brown was killed when his World War II Hurricane crashed during a barrel roll during a re-enactment of the Battle of Britain.

MTF...P2