11 feared dead in vintage jet crash
Print Edition
THE death toll from the crash of a jet aircraft onto a busy road near an airshow in southern England on Saturday is thought to have risen to 11, the BBC reported yesterday.
Initial reports said seven people were killed in the accident, but police quoted by the BBC said it was “highly likely” that 11 died, although formal identification could not yet be made.
The pilot of the historic Hawker Hunter military was reported to be in a critical condition in hospital yesterday following the crash when his plane plunged onto a road.
The jet failed to pull up out of a loop at the Shoreham Airshow on the southeast English coast on Saturday, and hit several cars, creating a fireball that sent thick, black smoke billowing into the sky.
The pilot was airlifted to hospital where he is in a critical condition, Sussex Police said, though they were unable to say whether he had ejected.
“As far as we are aware all those who sadly lost their lives were on the road,” the county force’s Superintendent Jane Derrick had earlier said.
Fourteen people sustained minor injuries, four of whom were taken to hospital.
Footage of the crash showed the jet attempting to perform a loop manoeuvre high in the air. The plane banked up steeply, turned over but did not complete the loop in time to avoid hitting the ground.
The crash happened at around 1:20pm. The plane hit the A27, a major road that runs along the southeast coast.
Pictures showed police had cordoned off the four-lane dual carriageway road, with ambulances, fire crews and emergency service helicopters in attendance.
Eyewitness Chris Watkins told the BBC: “The Hunter came across the airfield, did a turn behind us and as it swooped down to do its run across the airfield it ploughed straight into the road and the trees.”
Hunters were a mainstay of Britain’s Royal Air Force in the 1950s and early 1960s.
Yesterday’s second day of the airshow was canceled.
Tim Loughton, the area’s representative in parliament, drove past the entrance minutes before the crash and said cars were queuing to get in.
The MP said given the numbers attending the airshow, “thank God that the aircraft did not hit a larger crowd.”
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