Shoreham airshow crash victims' families beg to stop pilot Andy Hill returning to skies

FAMILIES torn apart by the
Shoreham Airshow disaster today issued an eleventh-hour plea to ground pilot Andy Hill for good.

Aviation chiefs are due to decide on Tuesday whether the ex-BA flyer should have his licence back.

Hill, 60, was performing a stunt in a vintage jet when it crashed on the A27 in West Sussex on August 22, 2015.

The inferno killed 11 men including Jacob Schilt, 23, who was on his way to play football for Worthing United, and injured 16 people.

Jacob’s parents Caroline, 64, and Bob, 70, and other relatives of the dead were at a two-day London hearing last week where Hill launched his appeal against the Civil Aviation Authority’s decision to revoke his licence.

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Caroline said of the case: “It’s ­outrageous – he shouldn’t be given another chance to fly that badly again.

“I wonder if his intention is to be re-employed by an airline again, which would be unthinkable. I would also be very concerned if he was able to do display flying again.”

Hill, a former RAF Harrier pilot, was attempting a loop manoeuvre in a Hawker Hunter when he crashed.

The 1950s jet broke into four parts, destroying eight vehicles on the dual carriageway. Hill survived after being thrown clear but spent a week in an induced coma. In 2022, a coroner ruled all 11 who died were unlawfully killed and blamed Hill’s poor flying.

Two years earlier his trial at the Old Bailey on charges of gross negligence manslaughter heard he had been flying too low – and his stunt at an airshow the year before had been halted over a dangerous manoeuvre.

However, the jury acquitted him of 11 counts of manslaughter after hearing he was cognitively impaired during the flight.

Caroline added: “He’s always stood by his claim that he was cognitively impaired. If that’s the case he should never fly under any circumstances.

“That could happen again – he doesn’t seem to get that.”

Her words were echoed by Sue and Phil Grimstone, whose son Matthew, 23, was in the car with teammate Jacob when they were killed. “We remain angry but most of all devastated by our loss,” they said.

“How can Mr Hill justify even considering reapplying for his licence? He does not appear able
to accept that he was the one flying the plane and responsible for
killing 11 men.”

At Hill’s appeal, CAA experts accused the pilot of showing “no remorse, admission of guilt or recognition of the events of that day”.

Also there was Tony Mallinson whose father James, 72, was killed as he drove to the airshow to photograph one of the last flights of the Vulcan bomber.

He said Hill appeared to show “a very slight hint” of remorse at last week’s London hearing.

“After this number of years and seeing all of us at the hearing was a complete shock to him,” said Tony.

“At least he acknowledged us but we don’t know how sincere it was. Was it just to give a good impression to the panel or was it from the heart? That we don’t know.”

But, speaking for himself and other relatives, he said: “We are all still trying to get our lives back on track. Hill continues to keep raking up the situation and is upsetting all of us.

“We want to be able to grieve quietly and when there’s a public hearing going on and it’s all about Shoreham again, how can you?

“Hill doesn’t deserve to fly again. After making countless errors, he cannot be trusted. The CAA and senior coroner have demonstrated that.

“Apart from just thinking about himself, he should think of all those people who survived and are injured or whose lives have been turned upside down.

“Emergency services who had to witness that. Just take a minute to think if he had lost a family member in something like that, would he want the pilot flying again?

“People feel extremely strongly. We never want to see anything like this happening again to any other family. He needs to show more empathy and compassion. I’d love to ask him, ‘Why would you want to fly again?’”

The CAA’s David McCorquodale told the hearing Hill’s flying “was so appallingly bad, it was incompetence, ignorance.”

Hill, from Sandon, near Buntingford, Herts, wants his full pilot’s licence back. He told the CAA panel: “I cannot say I am more sorry than I am. I just don’t understand what happened on that day.”