The pilot who crashed at the Shoreham Air Show leaving 11 men dead is taking his fight to fly again to the High Court.
The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) suspended Andy Hill’s pilot’s licence after he crashed on to the A27 in a Hawker Hunter when an aerobatic move went wrong on Saturday 22 August 2015.
Mr Hill, 60, applied to the CAA, the aviation regulator, to have his licence back but he was turned down last October.
The former Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot has now asked the High Court for a judicial review of the CAA decision.
The CAA said that it was considering its response to the claim lodged by Mr Hill and has 21 days to set out its case.
It also said today (Thursday 6 March): “The thoughts of everyone at the UK Civil Aviation Authority remain with those affected by the tragic crash.”
After the crash, Mr Hill, of Sandon Road, Sandon, Hertfordshire, was charged with 11 counts of manslaughter by gross negligence and one count of endangering an aircraft.
He was tried by a jury at the Central Criminal Court – better known as the Old Bailey – in London and was found not guilty in March 2019.
But coroner Penelope Schofield concluded at an inquest in December 2022 that Mr Hill’s flying of the vintage Hawker Hunter had led to the 11 men – six of them from Brighton and Hove – being unlawfully killed.
Last October, the CAA upheld the decision to revoke Mr Hill’s flying licence and said that he “still seeks to disassociate himself from any meaningful responsibility for the accident”.
It is understood that Mr Hill filed his request for a judicial review after the three-month deadline but the CAA is weighing up its response.
Caroline and Bob Schilt, whose son Jacob died in the crash, criticised Mr Hill, as did Tony Mallinson, the son of another victim, Graham Mallinson.
The BBC quoted the former Conservative MP Tim Loughton, who represented East Worthing and Shoreham at the time of the crash, saying that Mr Hill’s legal action was crass and insensitive and could reopen old wounds.
Mr Loughton said: “He needs to do the decent thing and give up his attempt to restart his flying career, given the circumstances in which it ended.”
The 11 men who died were
- Maurice Abrahams, 76, from Brighton
- Dylan Archer, 42, from Brighton
- Anthony Brightwell, 53, from Hove
- Matthew Grimstone, 23, from Brighton
- Matthew Jones, 24, from Littlehampton
- Graham Mallinson, 72, from Newick
- Daniele Polito, 23, from Goring
- Mark Reeves, 53, from Seaford
- Jacob Schilt, 23, from Brighton
- Richard Smith, 26, from Hove
- Mark Trussler, 54, from Worthing
This chap must have no shame. Did he not realise how insensitive this must feel to the families of those that died. He must also be really old by now and even more dangerous.
Shows no remorse. Dispicable!
It still beggars belief that he was found not guilty of manslaughter.
what a disrespectful p***k !! Have some respect for the families that are left! Why would you even want it back?
what a slap in the face that would be!
Even if he got his license back, no one with any common sense is ever going to put him in the seat of an airplane again. Learning when to bow out is important.
The fact he chose to do the loop de loop over the A27 is criminal in itself.
The fact he has not spent considerable time in prison is a huge stain on our justice system.
The only real justice would have seen him perish in the crash.
An obscene, disgraceful individual with no empathy or remorse for the one’s who died
How our “justice” system has failed the families and those who perished because of this idiotic evil man. In any other country he would have been arrested immediatley and imprisoned, so many time sady our court system wins by the person who can afford the most expensive lawyers which he did. No justice! It was obvious he was at fault as the coroner found, But no remorse at all, total denial – How can he sleep at night?
The CAA were clear in was his fault and were quite outspoken against him ever having a licence again. Now for him to take this to a higher court shows how evil he is, sorry but that my opinion. So very very selfish, what a horrible creature!
Unbelievable! This man is an Absolute narcissist!
Should never be allowed to fly again.
He should be in prison for the rest of his life but how he can kill 11 innocent people and get off without a long sentence is beyond me!
To then have the audacity to ask for his pilot license back after this horrendous crash and they said NO! For him to then have the balls to even attempt to appeal this decision…. Its just mind blowing! No remorse, no care and no empathy for the victims, the families left to deal with the aftermath and the emergency services that saw what they did that day and him keep doing this is just putting all the people affected even more pain and heartache ! How selfish and self absorbed can one human being be! It’s evil! He is evil! Why can’t he just give it up?
If he’s not in prison. He should be in a psychiatric facility for a long time! He’s not safe to be in society not only for what he did that day. But for the way he continues to behave and act 10 years on! He should NEVER be able to return to flying!
Absolute evil and horrid man!
“how he can kill 11 innocent people and get off without a long sentence is beyond me!”
Because a jury at the Old Bailey found him not guilty of manslaughter (and you don’t usually get long sentences for manslaughter). The law is the law. If there was anything wrong with the outcome doubtless there would have been legal challenge
Good evening Mr Hall, in December 2022, the coroner found that the victims were unlawfully killed as their deaths were caused by an incorrect manoeuvre and a series of gross errors. Did you forget that’s what the coroner and the inquest found? The fact your commenting on here after killing 11 people due to misconduct and narcissism in your skills is truly sickening that you’ve gone to the website to defend what you did. Have some shame and guilt. It’s also insulting to our intelligence that you have made up some name to defend yourself on this comment section rather than trying to do some good in the world and replace the evil that you’ve done via gross misconduct.
The man did a manoeuvre, over motorway traffic, and ended up murdering 11 men. Hmm, license back? I think not. Selfish and shameless, to say the least.
Trouble is that if he killed 11 men by driving a car he would get his driving license back. There needs to be parity here.
No there doesn’t. There needs to be zero tolerance because he’s got zero compassion for the families of the victims and obviously the number of victims involved. As I commented earlier the legal team should face scrutiny as well. Unfortunately the only winners out of this very sad story will be the lawyers. Win or lose, they will still get grotesque amounts of blood money.
The other hidden factor to this guy being able to carry out a seeming vendetta to achieve the goal of the restoration of his pilots licence is his legal team. who, also are behaving in a wholly morally reprehensible manner as well. Without their guidance he would probably wouldn’t have a snowballs chance in hell of achieving his goal?
This man shouldn’t be let near a paper airplane let alone a high performance jet aircraft!
The best case situation is that the law firm are milking him as much possible as he incorrectly got found not guilty by a court while an inquest and coroner found that he was responsible for unlawful killing and at fault. Because he was found innocent by a court of law the best case scenario is that lawyers are manipulating him to think that he’s a victim who has been unfairly demonized when in reality the most likely situation it is man is a narcissist and a very very bad individual and possibly even a psychopath and in that case there’s a genuine serious danger to the public.
On 20 September 2014, pilot Andy Hill was pulled from displaying after he flew inverted, low and over the crowd line at Southport airshow. https://youtu.be/GMvmdcsSy20