Qualla: 2015 Shoreham Airshow Crash

2015 Shoreham Airshow Crash: Introduction

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A Daimler limousine was on its way to collect a bride for her wedding. Two footballers from Worthing United were driving to a match. Families were heading home along the A27, the busy dual carriageway that runs past Shoreham Airport on the West Sussex coast. None of them were watching the airshow. At 1:22 p.m. on 22 August 2015, a 1950s Hawker Hunter T7 jet, attempting an aerobatic loop it had begun far too low, struck the road at high speed, killing eleven people and injuring sixteen others. It was the deadliest air show accident in Britain since the 1952 Farnborough disaster.

2015 Shoreham Airshow Crash: Eighty Seconds

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Hunter had been the opening act of the afternoon display session at the two-day Shoreham Airshow, held in aid of the Royal Air Forces Association. Conditions were hot and sunny with a light crosswind. The jet made a low pass along the runway from south to north, then turned f...

2015 Shoreham Airshow Crash: The Long Aftermath

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

A de Havilland Sea Vixen, already airborne for the next display, instead flew overhead at altitude and departed. An Avro Vulcan, due thirty minutes later, performed a solemn tribute flypast before the show was closed. The second day was cancelled. Within hours, the Civil Aviation...

2015 Shoreham Airshow Crash: Eleven Lives

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The people who died on the A27 that afternoon were not spectators who had accepted the small risk of watching aircraft perform. They were motorists on a public road, going about ordinary Saturday errands. Two were footballers for Worthing United, heading to a game they would neve...

2015 Shoreham Airshow Crash: A Changed Sky

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Shoreham crash reshaped British airshow culture. The CAA's tightened regulations increased costs so significantly that many regional shows were cancelled outright. The Llandudno Airshow folded. The Red Arrows switched from aerobatic displays to simple flypasts at Farnborough ...