Shoreham air crash pilot flew too low and too slow before vintage jet crashed killing 11, investigators find

A Hawker Hunter jet crashed in Sussex on the A27 in 2015

Emergency services attend the scene of the crash on the A27 in August 2015 (PA)

Pilot errors led to the Shoreham air crash which killed 11 people, investigators have found.

A Hawker Hunter jet crashed on the A27 in Sussex during the Shoreham Air Show.

The pilot entered the manoeuvre too low and failed to use the maximum thrust, according to the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB).

The report also found the measures taken to mitigate the consequences of an aircraft crashing outside the boundary of the air show were "ineffective" and contributed to the severity of the incident.

Responding to the findings, the parents of victim Matthew Grimstone, 23, said the organisers of the air show and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had “much to answer for".

In a statement, they said: "Apart from anything that the pilot may have got wrong, it is very evident the CAA and the Shoreham Air Show organisers have got much to answer for.

"Rules laid down by the CAA were quite clearly inadequate and those that were there were, in some cases, not fully adhered to by the air show organisers."

The pilot, Andrew Hill, 52, suffered serious injuries and is being investigated for possible manslaughter.

Mr Hill had not received formal training on how to escape the manoeuvre and had not had his competence to do so assessed, the report found.

He was interviewed on seven occasions by AAIB investigators, but could not remember events between the incident and regaining consciousness in hospital.