The pilot who crashed during a loop at Shoreham Air Show killing 11 people had not told organisers of his plans, an interim report has revealed.
The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) report says it was not possible for organisers to identify potential hazards before the event on August 22 last year without being aware of where the pilot would fly.
Pilot Andy Hill, 51, crashed the Hawker Hunter onto the A27 outside Shoreham in one of Britain's worst air show disasters.
The 1959 vintage plane failed to pull out of a loop-the-loop stunt and crashed onto the dual-carriageway, exploding into a fireball.
The report reveals he had been caught flying too low and too close to the crowd at Southport air show in 2014, a year before the crash, but the incident was never logged by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and "no further action" was taken.
The AAIB reports says it was a missed opportunity which could have "provided an opportunity to explore the pilot’s continued competence" and has recommended that pilots are immediately suspended where their "competence is in doubt" pending an investigation by an independent examiner.
It also wants the CAA to publish a list of all incidents where pilots are given "stop calls".
Mr Hill had been granted his Display Authorisation certificate by a member of the same flying team, it has revealed.
The report now recommends the CAA ensures that evaluators have "no conflict of interest" with the pilots they are assessing.
The show's organisers have been criticised for not being fully aware of the sequence of display manoeuvres the pilot of the jet was planning to carry out.
It found "a number of deficiencies compared to what would have been expected", the AAIB stated.
The review added: "It is not clear that those who assessed the risks and recorded the assessment had a full understanding of the purpose of the risk assessment.
"The risk assessment for the 2015 Shoreham Airshow did not show the range of hazards presented by different display aircraft that formed the display and did not consider specifically where the hazards would occur or who would be exposed to them. There was no evidence of an attempt to consider either a hierarchy of protection or control."
It has revealed that the Shoreham Flying Display Director (FDD), who was responsible for the risk assessment, went on to submit risk assessments on two further air shows following the crash which were granted by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
"It was found that the Shoreham Airshow Air Display Risk Assessment contained a number of deficiencies compared to what would have been expected for a risk assessment to control risks to the public," it says.
"The FDD of the Shoreham flying display was the FDD at two flying displays after 22 August 2015. The risk assessments he presented in support of these applications were not materially different from that for Shoreham."
Investigators also viewed video footage of the 2014 air show which revealed the "majority of the aerobatic manoeuvres" took place over public areas and in one instance over the town of Lancing.
The report also highlighted how the CAA had failed to implement a recommendation made by the AAIB after an air show crash in 2007 which said pilots should give "details of manoeuvres" organisers in advance.
On behalf of some of the families of the Shoreham victims, James Healy-Pratt, Head of Aviation and Travel at Stewarts Law, said the interim report highlights "missed opportunities".
"This makes very difficult reading for the families who lost their loved ones at the Shoreham Airshow," he said.
"It highlights missed opportunities by aviation regulators and airshow organisers to do their jobs properly. The CAA failed as a regulator in properly implementing a safety recommendation made over six years ago by the AAIB from a fatal Hawker crash at Shoreham in 2007. The 2015 Shoreham Airshow Organiser also failed to conduct a proper risk assessment.
"Both these failures may well have been contributing factors in this disaster. These will be important matters to be raised at the Shoreham Airshow Pre-Inquest Review Hearing later this month."
Last year it was revealed Mr Hill began his fatal loop-the-loop hundreds of feet lower than his licence allowed.
Mr Hill, who was seriously injured in the crash, was only allowed to perform such manoeuvres at a minimum height of 500ft, under an authorisation from the Civil Aviation Authority.
Jim Morris, a former pilot and specialist aviation lawyer at Irwin Mitchell representing the victims of the Shoreham crash, said: “This is an extremely important step forward in improving the safety of airshows across the UK. There are clear learning points from what happened at Shoreham which the CAA must take into account and implement into its policies and guidance asap.
“The key issues include the detail included in the risk assessments for Shoreham in relation to where potentially dangerous manoeuvres were taking place and how close the crowd would be standing. As we tragically saw in August last year, when something goes wrong with an aircraft near to a large group of spectators, there can be disastrous consequences
“Although we don’t want to dampen the enjoyment that many people derive from airshows, it’s quite clear that the regulations for organisers looking to put on a display have got to be improved to reduce the risk of similar issues in future.”
Shoreham has already decided it will not hold a show this year, out of respect for the victims.
(culled from www.telegraph.co.uk)
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