Image © Paul Johnson A privately owned Hawker Hunter T.Mk.7 WV372 aircraft crashed during an air display maneuver at the Shoreham Airshow...
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| Image © Paul Johnson |
The twin seat trainer variant of the 1950 era vintage Hawker Hunter fighter aircraft, crashed while executing a loop maneuver, at about 1.20 pm local time.
The pilot has been critically injured following the ejection.
The historic military jet crashed into a busy main road at Shoreham in Sussex. Insufficient altitude or increased time to execute the loop, could be attributed to the crash by analysis of the crash video.
The aircraft hit several cars on the A27 just to the north of Shoreham Airport, where the Shoreham Airshow is taking place.
The Hunter was intially used as the RAF’s main air defence fighter until the English Electric Lightning entered service. It also served in the ground attack, photo reconnaissance and training roles with both the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.
In fact, civilian operated Hunters still support Royal Navy and other Air Forces around the world on training exercises and trials work.
The T.Mk.7 was a two seat development of the F.Mk.4, the RAF’s standard day-fighter. WV372 was owned by Graham Peacock and was based at North Weald Airfield in Essex. It carried the markings of No. 2(AC) Squadron when they were based at RAF Gutersloh in Germany.
WV372 has been active on the display circuit for many years, first with Jet Heritage at Bournemouth before passing through several other owners and operators.
