Shoreham crash pilot: Allow me to fly again

Victims families anger at bid to reclaim licence

- DAN WARBURTON

SHOREHAM disaster pilot Andy Hill has launched a bid to reclaim his flying licence, nine years after his vintage jet crashed and killed 11 men.

Hill, 60, yesterday claimed a decision to strip him of his licences after his 1950s Hawker Hunter crashed and exploded into a fireball in 2015 was made to avoid bad publicity.

But at a hearing in London, Civil Aviation Authority experts blasted his actions and said he had "shown no remorse, admission of guilt or recognition of the events of that day".

It sparked anger among victims' families, with Julie Smith, who lost her son Richard Jonathan Smith, 26, in the disaster, saying: "The CAA have to have the confidence of the public.

"But there is enough evidence out there without thinking about bad publicity. Hill has never accepted any responsibility nor shown any remorse to distance himself from what he has actually done."

Hill was asked three times yesterday if he agreed his flying on the day fell below the expected standards.