Fighter jet crashes unto highway during UK airshow, seven dead

Jet seen skimming the top of trees before the crash

A Hawker Hunter fighter jet participating in the Shoreham Airshow has crashed on a highway near Brighton, hitting several cars. Seven people were reported to have died with many more injured. Eyewitnesses told the BBC the plane appeared to be performing a loop before it crashed. Apparently, the jet failed to pull out of a loop manoeuvre.

Debris of the Hawker Hunter jet

A witness, Stephen Jones, told the BBC that the pilot had just begun his display. "He'd gone up into a loop and as he was coming out of the loop I just thought, you're too low, you're too low, pull up. And he flew straight into the ground either on or very close to the A27, which runs past the airport," Jones said.

One of the cars destroyed during the crash

Crashes at British airshows are said to be rare, but in 2007 the pilot of a World War II Hurricane died at the Shoreham Airshow after performing an unplanned barrel-roll.
"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. "This is an airshow that's been going for 26 years, only the second time there's been any serious accident, and the first time that spectators and people on the ground have been affected, bad though that is."

Pilot Andy Hill is believed to have been pulled out of the wreckage alive