Shoreham crash pilot Andy Hill claims he was 'disabled by jet's G-Force when he crashed on A27 killing 11'

Andy Hill, 54, faces 11 counts of manslaughter by gross negligence and one count of endangering an aircraft under air navigation laws after the plane crashed in a failed loop-the-loop stunt.

The single-seater Hawker Hunter jet, piloted by Hill, had failed to pull out of the stunt during the Shoreham Airshow in West Sussex on August 22, 2015.

Moments later, the vintage aircraft crashed onto the A27, sending a fireball across the busy West Sussex road.

Hill, a trained Royal Air Force instructor and fast jet pilot, was seriously injured but survived the tragedy after being thrown from the aircraft.

Today at a pre-trial hearing at the Old Bailey, Judge Andrew Edis, said the issue would be whether Hill was "at fault".



He said: "The issue is whether Mr Hill was at fault or whether he was disabled by the G force."
Maurice Abrahams, 76, Graham Mallinson, 72, Mark Trussler, 54, Mark Reeves, and Anthony Brightwell, both 53, Dylan Archer, 46, Richard Smith, 26, Matt Jones, 24, and Daniele Polito, Matthew Grimstone and Jacob Schilt, all 23, were all killed in the tragedy.

The Hawker Hunter is a British jet-powered fighter which was developed for the RAF during the late 1940s and early 1950s.

It was designed to take advantage of a newly developed Rolls-Royce turbo engine and was the first jet-powered aircraft produced by Hawker to be procured by the RAF.

The CPS announced in 2017 that they would be pursuing charges against the pilot after several years of investigations.

The trial is due to open on Wednesday January 16.

 

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