'We saw things no human should ever have to see'

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Tony Kemp was the first medical professional to reach the pilot after his plane crashed at the Shoreham Airshow

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On 22 August 2015, a Hawker Hunter plane crashed onto a busy West Sussex road during an aerial display, killing 11 people and injuring 16 others.

The Shoreham Airshow disaster left many witnesses and emergency service personnel deeply traumatised.

Specialist nurse practitioner Tony Kemp was volunteering at the show and remembers the 22 August as a "beautiful day, extremely hot".

Then at 13:22 BST the fighter jet crashed onto the A27 while doing a loop manoeuvre and erupted into a fireball.

Mr Kemp was the first medic to reach pilot Andy Hill, who had survived but was "badly injured".

"We'd come through a horrific scene. It was very traumatic," he told the BBC.

Mr Kemp said the environment was "very hazardous" with flames around him and his colleagues as they worked.

"That was pretty scary. You're walking through what is a huge debris field.

"You've got the dead, and you're trying to bring dignity there."

'It doesn't go away'

Mr Kemp described becoming "very hot", realising the flames were just metres away and coming towards them.

"We're in a dip, we've got the fuel vapour all around us. You know, this wasn't good," he said.

He took the decision to sedate the pilot to remove him from what remained of the plane's cockpit.

Wreckage and emergency services vehicles fill a road.Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Mr Kemp said there wasn't any hysteria on the scene

"What was remarkable in so many ways was the stillness at the scene," he said.

"People were so shocked. There wasn't a lot of screaming and running. There wasn't a lot of hysteria or anything like that, and and that in itself was unnerving.

"We witnessed something no human should ever have to see.

"It doesn't go away. And sometimes it comes and plays with you."

'It changed who we were'

Terry Alexander was a volunteer ambulance crew member in 2015.

Ten years on, she said she still struggled to drive past the site of the crash.

"I don't like it. I really don't like it," she said.

Ms Alexander said she always turned the music off as she drove through the area and thought about the people who died and their families.

"It changed who we were that day," she said.

"It changed our understanding of life and our understanding of what we could do, and our expectations of what we wanted to be able to be in the future."

The team of British Red Cross workers who treated people injured in the Shoreham Airshow disaster were given the organisation's highest honour.

The 66 staff and volunteers who worked on the day the Hawker Hunter crashed on the A27 and in the weeks afterwards received the Dunant Award.

Tony Kemp was awarded the Special Service Cross.

A collection of photographs of men. They are various ages. Image source, Sussex Police
Image caption,

(Top row, left to right) Matt Jones, Matthew Grimstone, Jacob Schilt, Maurice Abrahams, Richard Smith. (Bottom row, left to right) Mark Reeves, Tony Brightwell, Mark Trussler, Daniele Polito, Dylan Archer, Graham Mallinson

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