Shoreham air crash: up to 20 people may have died, police say

As many as 20 people may have died in the Shoreham air crash on Saturday, police have said, as calls grow for the rules governing airshows to be tightened.

Police have begun lifting the wreckage of the 1950s Hawker Hunter, which plummeted on to the the A27 after it failed to pull out of a loop manoeuvre during an aerial display.

Police said on Sunday that they feared 11 people had died but Asst Chief Const Steve Barry of Sussex police said yesterday this figure could rise.

“To give people a sense of scale and also the number of people we are trying to work with in terms of the movements of their loved ones, then I would be really surprised if it would be more than 20,” he said.

Saturday’s crash has prompted questions over whether the aerobatic display should have taken place next to a busy road.

Britain’s air transport regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), said it had begun a review of airshows and had placed new restrictions on events as a result of Saturday’s crash.

Flying displays over land by vintage aircraft will be significantly restricted and limited to flypasts, with acrobatics banned. No more flights are to be allowed for now by Hawker Hunter aircraft of the type involved in the crash.

Bystanders

The fate of a group of bystanders caught on camera at the scene of the crash is unknown.

The pilot of the Hawker Hunter jet, who also flies for British Airways, remains in a critical condition after being pulled from the wreckage and airlifted to Royal Sussex hospital.

Police said efforts to sift through the wreckage left by the crash would take “days rather than hours”, as anxious family members and friends continued to wait for news of others who have been killed.

A crane lifted the wreckage of the aircraft yesterday. The site of the crash stretches for more than 360m and has been described as hazardous because of the amount of fuel still on the plane.

The Royal Air Forces Association confirmed reports that the pilot flying the Hunter on Saturday was not originally due to do so, but added that it was “entirely routine” for pilots to switch duties and the decision was taken over a month ago.

“The team at Shoreham have many years of experience in running airshows throughout the UK and all aircraft have to be certificated and all pilots authorised by the CAA before they are allowed to undertake display routines at any airshow. The airshow itself has to meet rigorous safety standards that are laid down by the CAA who review these on an ongoing basis.”

Ferocious blast

John Turner, chairman of the British Air Display Association, told BBC Radio 4’s

Today

programme that the crash was “absolutely tragic” but said authorities should make sure they understood why it occurred before changing regulations.

“We’ve had 63 years of accident-free airshows in the UK and that reflects the rules and regulations that we have in place,” Mr Turner said.

Matt Jones, a 24-year-old personal trainer from Littlehampton, was also on the A27 when the vintage aircraft plunged from the sky. His sister confirmed he had been killed.

The driver of a vintage wedding limousine, the rider of a motorbike and two cyclists were also feared dead, but police have said that emergency services were finding it difficult to identify victims owing to the ferocity of the blast. – (Guardian service)