Seven dead in crash at British air show

CNN is reporting that a major incident has been declared, and that at least seven people are reported to have perished in the disaster.

Video footage posted online showed the plane in the process of executing an acrobatic loop before it hit the ground, causing an explosion which appeared to engulf some cars on a road. The jet ended up in a bush, according to a spokesman for Shoreham Airshow.

The pilot, believed to be former RAF fast-jet pilot Andy Hill, 51, was a regular stunt flier on the summer airshow circuit.

“At around 1.20pm today, a Hawker Hunter jet that had just started its display at the Shoreham Airshow crashed into the A27”. Shoreham Airshow cancelled its event, which was due to run into Sunday.

Supt Jane Derrick of Sussex police said on Saturday night that the pilot was flown to the Royal Sussex Hospital where he is in a critical condition and fighting for his life.

“The plane just started to come down toward the motorway”, said eyewitness Ailish Southall, who was driving along the road with her children in the back seat. It is a bit preliminary to make assumptions or guess as to what specifically went wrong in the cockpit this afternoon.

“It was doing a big loop the loop land I thought, “That’s coming in low” and then there was a massive fireball”, he said.

Gairo Gomez, who works nearby, said the whole building shook. “From where we were we could see the jet came down very low and looked like it was going to scoop up – but it didn’t”. “I heard a huge bang and the glass was shaking and the doors were banging, the whole building was shaking”.

Visitors to the site were kept at the airfield until around 7pm.

Those at Shoreham Airshow are only permitted to leave on foot at this time.

The Royal Sussex County hospital said it was put on alert for a major incident at 2pm.

Burning debris was also visible high in the air.

“We mustn’t rush to knee jerk reactions about the safety of airshows”, said Tim Loughton, a member of Britain’s parliament who represents Shoreham.

He said: “There was about a couple of hundred yards of cars queueing at the entrance to get in as well as stewards and some spectators sitting by the roadside”.

She said about 20,000 people were at the show and they descended into “hushed silence”. What followed was an unbelievable, horrific crash and explosion.