Shoreham air crash: Bystanders left 'deeply shocked and shaken'

(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

Witnesses of the Shoreham Airshow crash were left "deeply shocked and shaken", an inquest has heard.

Eleven people were killed after a vintage jet crashed on to the A27 in August 2015.

On the third day of the hearing, bystanders described a "lasting effect" after watching the display go wrong.

Andrew Boydell, an off-duty Met Police officer, said it was "one of the most shocking scenes I have had to deal with in my police service".

Sussex Police Ch Supt Carwyn Hughes described it as "the most complicated scene I'd ever been responsible for or am likely to ever be responsible for".

He paid tribute to fellow officers who he said were faced with a task that "we're all trained for" but "never expected to happen".

The vintage aircraft killed 11 men when it crashed on a dual carriageway in West Sussex in August 2015

Christopher Bryant, an on-duty Sussex Police officer, described feeling uneasy watching the jet leaving its loop-the-loop manoeuvre, and feeling uneasy at how low it was flying.

"I started to say out loud 'pull up. pull up'."

He said: "[It] will have a lasting effect on me and my colleagues, as it was devastating and very upsetting."

'Shocked and shaken'

Daniel Phelps-Laundon, a civil enforcement officer, said he was "deeply shocked and shaken by what happened", and by the fact he had spoken to one of the 11 men before his death.

Mr Phelps-Laundon said he had asked Mark Trussler to move on from where he was parked, as the route needed to be clear for emergency vehicles.

He told the inquest he had watched Mr Trussler ride off towards the A27.

The chair of the Civil Aviation Authority offered to meet with the families of those who died at the air show, Gerald Forlin KC, one of the lawyers representing the families, said.

He said the families had decided such a meeting would not be appropriate before the inquest had concluded.

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