A pilot was hospitalized in critical condition yesterday following a crash at a British airshow that killed seven people when his airplane plunged into a busy road.
The historic Hawker Hunter military 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 a hospital where he is in critical condition, Sussex police said, although they were unable to say whether he had ejected from the airplane.
Photo: AP
“As far as we are aware, all those who sadly lost their lives were on the road,” county police Superintendent Jane Derrick said. “At this time we are continuing to search ... the area to ensure that we have identified all the casualties.
“It is possible that ... we are going to find more bodies at the scene,” Derrick added.
Fourteen people sustained minor injuries, four of whom were hospitalized.
Footage of the crash showed the jet attempting to perform a loop maneuver high in the air. The airplane banked up steeply, turned over, but did not complete the loop in time to avoid hitting the ground.
The crash happened at about 1:20pm on Saturday. The airplane hit the A27, a major road that runs along England’s southeast coast.
Pictures from the scene showed police had cordoned off the four-lane road, with ambulances, fire crews and emergency service helicopters in attendance. Debris was visible across the road.
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 just plowed straight into the road and the trees.”
Stephen Jones, another witness, added: “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 just disappeared behind some low trees at the edge of the airfield and then there was a huge explosion,” Jones said.
Gairo Gomez, who works nearby, said the whole building he was in shook.
“I saw the plane going down,” he added. “I heard a huge bang and the glass was shaking and the doors were banging, the whole building was shaking.”
A mainstay of the British Royal Air Force in the 1950s and early 1960s, Hawker Hunter airplanes were used in campaigns such as the Suez Crisis and the Malayan Emergency.
The second day of the airshow yesterday was canceled.
Tim Loughton, the area’s representative in parliament, drove past the airshow entrance a few minutes before the crash and said cars were lining up to get in.
He said that given the numbers attending the airshow, “thank God that the aircraft did not hit a larger crowd.”
“It’s horrific. It is a horrendous crash,” he said.
British Prime Minister David Cameron sent his condolences to the families of those who died.
“The prime minister sends his heartfelt condolences to the families of the people who were so tragically killed. The prime minister’s thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the victims,” a Downing Street spokesman said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
‘POLITICAL EARTHQUAKE’: Leo Varadkar said he was ‘no longer the best person’ to lead the nation and was stepping down for political, as well as personal, reasons Leo Varadkar on Wednesday announced that he was stepping down as Ireland’s prime minister and leader of the Fine Gael party in the governing coalition, citing “personal and political” reasons. Pundits called the surprise move, just 10 weeks before Ireland holds European Parliament and local elections, a “political earthquake.” A general election has to be held within a year. Irish Deputy Prime Minister Micheal Martin, leader of Fianna Fail, the main coalition partner, said Varadkar’s announcement was “unexpected,” but added that he expected the government to run its full term. An emotional Varadkar, who is in his second stint as prime minister and at
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia