Shoreham air crash pilot Andrew Hill has flight proposal rejected

The pilot whose plane crashed at Shoreham Airshow, killing 11 men, has had his application to return his licenses refused, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said.

Andrew Hill was piloting an old aircraft which crashed on the A27 whilst performing a maneuver at the air show in West Sussex in 2015.

His license was suspended by the CAA following the incident.

He appealed the decision, but the CAA confirmed on Thursday that his pilot and flight radiotelephony licenses will be “formally revoked”.

In a statement, a CAA spokesperson said: “Following a public hearing into a challenge by Andrew Hill to a proposal by the UK CAA to revoke his pilot and flight radiotelephony licences, the decision panel confirmed that the proposal and Andrew Hill’s licenses will now be formally revoked.”

Hill has not been able to fly in the UK since 2015, following the incident.

The CAA spokesperson added: “The thoughts of everyone at the UK Civil Aviation Authority remain with those affected by the tragic accident.”

Hill was charged with 11 counts of gross negligence manslaughter but was found not guilty after a trial in March 2019.

In December 2022, a coroner ruled that his significant mistakes and “poor” Hawker Hunter plane flight led to the unlawful deaths of 11 men.

In a report released by the CAA, it states that Hill “still seeks to disassociate himself from any significant responsibility for the accident”, maintaining that he has “no explanation” for what happened and refers to himself in the third person and not the first.

The report states that these actions by Hill “cast doubt on the Applicant’s fitness to hold the relevant licenses.”

He added: “The suspension of either license is not appropriate, especially given the seriousness of the errors and their consequences.”