An ex-military pilot whose plane crashed during an air show killing 11 people would have been "drilled"
in escape manoeuvres, claimed expert witness, Jonathan Whaley speaking at the Old Bailey
Andrew Hill was flying in Shoreham when his Hawker Hunter jet crashed
in a loop manoeuvre, in August 2015.
The expert said, a pilot should be, "aware of escape manoeuvres for every part of the aerobatic display".
Mr Hill denies 11 counts of manslaughter by gross negligence. The aircraft, a Hawker Hunter T7, failed to complete a loop
manoeuvre and crashed onto vehicles on the A27 road.
Mr Whaley, who has himself flown more than 300 performances in a Hawker Hunter,
told jurors all display pilots in the UK have to be authorised by the civil
aviation authority, which sets out an array of rules and regulations and puts public safety as the priority.
These rules state pilots need be aware of something potentially going wrong and to have escape
manoeuvres in their mind should it occur.
Mr Hill, 54, flew the jet six times at Shoreham Airshow.
Mr Whaley said all military pilots would have been "drilled" in these rules.
"You practice a lot in simulators, they throw the book at you in terms of
emergencies... to make sure you can cope with emergencies without thinking too much," he told the Old Bailey.
It is the prosecution's case that during the loop manoeuvre he should have been aware he was not flying high enough
or fast enough to complete it safely, and should have used such an escape manoeuvre at the top of the loop.
Show crash pilot 'blacked out in the air'
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Karim Khalil QC, defending, previously claimed Mr Hill was suffering from "cognitive impairment"
and could not remember what happened immediately before the crash.
At an earlier hearing, the court heard a statement from paramedic Mark Durham in which he said Mr Hill
would have blacked out at some point in the seconds before the plane crashed.
The trial continues.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Shoreham_Airshow_crash
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