All other things being equal, the point of impact would likely have been adjacent to the road rather than in the middle of the road. Not sure he really knew the pilot, but obviously knows what kind of guy he (the pilot) was.
Originally Posted by Thunder and Lightnings website WV372 was built as an F.4 and first flew on 15th July 1955. Delivered to 222(F) Squadron on 2nd September 1955, around a year later her rear fuselage was badly damaged by an in-flight fire caused by hot exhaust gases escaping when the jetpipe detached from the engine. Returned to Hawkers, she was repaired and converted to a T.7 and returned to the RAF (5 MU) on May 1959. She went on to serve with the RAF Jever and Gutersloh Station Flights, II(AC) Squadron (in whose colours she ended her civilian flying career) and 4 FTS. After retirement she was one of Jet Heritage's airworthy Hunters and carried out one of her first public displays in 1998. Since then the aircraft has changed hands several times, having been owned by the Fox One consortium (based at Kemble), then Conciair Ltd and then Hunter Flying (based for some time at Exeter, and part of the short-lived Team Viper display team, before moving to their new base at St. Athan). She was put up for sale once, ending up based with new owners at North Weald and returned to the airshow circuit. Sadly on 22nd August 2015 she crashed at the Shoreham Airshow, impacting a busy road junction and causing multiple ground fatalities - the first in the UK since 1952 due in no small part to the strict safety regime put in place by the Civil Aviation Authority. As an immediate result, Hunter flying has been temporarily banned and high energy aerobatic manouevres by vintage jets over land have been banned too. At the time of writing pilot Andy Hill is fighting for his life in hospital.
