Hurricane crash at Shoreham Airshow

The Minster church in Doncaster was packed for the funeral. It was truly a celebration of Brian’s life and a chance to say goodbye to one of the greatest aviation enthusiasts I have known. Unfortunately the building’s acoustics were such that I could not hear the valedictory addresses but I was told they were a real tribute to Brian and his contribution to our kind of aviation. One poignant couple of minutes came when the rector conducting the service invited us all to recall one memorable occasion involving Brian and remember it silently for a couple of minutes. You could hear a pin drop.

The subsequent cremation was private so most of those at the church made their way to the palatial premises of the Doncaster Rugby Club for a “wake”. There were more luminaries from the airshow world than I have ever seen gathered before in one place. All the associations and light aviation disciplines were there in great numbers. It was truly an occasion to meet old friends and to make new ones. So sad it had to be on such an occasion since Brian would have relished being there in person rather than in fond memory.

A stretched “vic” of two Spitfires and a Mustang did a couple of superb flypasts in “missing man” formation at 1600. On the final pass one Spitfire pulled up and did a fine unloaded aileron roll. A fabulous touch and one that Brian would have loved. We all did. It met with applause from those who watched which was everyone including the excellent catering staff who had laid on a superb buffet.

John Romain had orchestrated it and the pilots were, probably, Cliff Spink, Peter Teichman and Maurice Hammond. A fine job done gentlemen.

My personal grieving has now subsided since the funeral does bring a form of closure but my fond memories of Brian Brown will stay with me until it is my time to join him. Hopefully at the age of 120 or so, after being shot by a jealous husband.

Cheers,

Reaper 69
:confused:

Memorial thread

Brian Brown memorial thread now up

A memorial thread…

Maybe a thread for Brian previewing his life and times,stories,jokes he shared,anything to remember why he loved these old planes we adore so much.

As Brian’s funeral is taking place today, it might be a suitable time to put aside for now discussion of the possible causes and whether it is justifiable to broadcast images of crash scenes, and pay respect to a well-loved man and respected member of the historic aviation community.

Hear hear, Bograt.

Rest in peace, Brian. There’s a lot of other Hurricane pilots at the bar up there – let’s hope they buy you a drink for helping us remember them. 🙁

Adrian

As Brian’s funeral is taking place today, it might be a suitable time to put aside for now discussion of the possible causes and whether it is justifiable to broadcast images of crash scenes, and pay respect to a well-loved man and respected member of the historic aviation community.

Unfortunately, as painful as this is, it is news, and I agree with the poster who says it’s the media’s job to cover it. If one doesn’t want to see coverage of crashes then dont read the newspaper or turn on the tv. The images and video do help to understand the reasons behind it. I only recently saw the Mosquito footage and no report ever did for me what that video shows. Thankfully the moment of impact is edited out.

John

Hurricane airshow crash

Hi
Having just returned to the UK .I came here looking for news about 558 only to find this sad thread.

May the pilot rest in peace.

Bruce,

Essentially this is a public forum and free speech, or even text, is a British tradition that must never be lost. The folk who post here are all enthusiasts but sometimes discretion must overcome valour. You and your fellow moderators have a thankless task and need the wisdom of Soloman in your work on behalf of all of us.

I am a DA evaluator, appointed by the CAA, and they have often stressed that the DAE’s have a vital role in monitoring standards of what we observe at airshows and elsewhere. It would not rest easy on our concience if we were to let a serious breach of airmanship or aircraft handling go unremarked with an accident following later. There may even be a need to report what we, or others, have seen to the CAA. They issue our DA’s and can suspend or revoke them if necessary. This is never done without serious consideration, but it does happen. We are all our brother’s keeper. I must stress that this paragraph has absolutely nothing to do with the thread on which it is posted. I am just trying to help you with your dilemma.

We must learn from every accident or serious incident otherwise we are inevitably going to have another one. The education process must be continuous and the associations are working on this aspect along, no doubt, with the CAA. The Historic Aircraft Association is in the initial stages of planning an airshow safety seminar to be held before the 2008 airshow season starts. It will need support and some of that may well be from this forum’s members.

Cheers,

Reaper 69
:confused:

http://www.haa-uk.aero/news-details.php?news-id=29

Thanks for the comments.

As usual, there is a fine, fine line between over moderation, and under moderation.

I noted on another forum, a comment from an ex police officer, who basically asked people not to discuss what they saw, but to report it straight to the authorities to allow them to have a clearer picture, without being coloured by other peoples recollections.

Skybolt, I am sure you have an opinion here, especially as you drew up many of the rules regarding safe flying at airshows. Should we give the board just a little more rope, to allow personal observances, but to disallow speculation?

Let me have your thoughts.

Bruce

Sadly, it is the Firefly that left the need for careful moderation when subjects like this come up. There was quite a debate regarding what had been seen. In the middle of it, the brother of one of those killed joined the debate, which made people realise what he must have been going through. It is also important, when reporting details of the acident to the authorities, that what you believe you saw is not coloured by other peoples interpretations of the event. It is the only way that the authorities can come to a coherent conclusion.

The moderators have kept a close eye on this thread, and are grateful to you all for staying within the bounds of good taste.

Bruce (Moderator)

You are correct in what you say there Bruce, it was the Firefly that changed everything. However those that have followed that incident, and witnessed it, could see it coming before it happened and there was a lot of anger (possibly too strong a word) and frustration around about what we had witnessed. And the official findings did not in any way contradict what we had seen. I think this is what made this a turning point.

I was at Shoreham at the weekend but I’m not sure what I saw and thought it was 108 that had gone down, despite having better than 20 20 vision and looking in that general direction. It was also completely out of the blue, and by that I mean the routine appeared easy and open and no one was watching heart in mouth wondering but really just soaking up the sight and sound. And most others on the field I spoke to had not noticed what happened and I think this in part has contributed to the lack of speculation. The incident was quite a way off the field with action over the field at the time that would have held most people’s attention.
Overall I am personally against stopping people from expressing what they saw with the obvious caveats on those that stupid or offensive.

Thanks chaps.

Guderian,
An excellent post with which I totally agree.
Cheers,
Reaper 69
😎

Forum Moderation may be vital, but in moderating please appreciate that whilst speculation is innappropriate, expression of first hand observation may be entirely well intentioned and is, i think, a function of the grief or disbelief of those who are near to the incident, and perhaps even in genuine shock. People are by nature imperfect and the need to ‘tell’ is compelling. I consider myself hard as nails, nevertheless will admit to a fortnight of flashbacks following the Firefly unpleasantness. I can, unfortunately, remember everything in minute detail.

Sadly, it is the Firefly that left the need for careful moderation when subjects like this come up. There was quite a debate regarding what had been seen. In the middle of it, the brother of one of those killed joined the debate, which made people realise what he must have been going through. It is also important, when reporting details of the acident to the authorities, that what you believe you saw is not coloured by other peoples interpretations of the event. It is the only way that the authorities can come to a coherent conclusion.

The moderators have kept a close eye on this thread, and are grateful to you all for staying within the bounds of good taste.

Bruce (Moderator)

Much respect for the pilot and condolences to the family.

Thankyou to you all for giving basic sober details for the information of genuine ‘forumites’- i would rather hear such things from people who i regard as buddies than from the sometime manic misinformation and ‘dumbed down’ media for the masses.

Forum Moderation may be vital, but in moderating please appreciate that whilst speculation is innappropriate, expression of first hand observation may be entirely well intentioned and is, i think, a function of the grief or disbelief of those who are near to the incident, and perhaps even in genuine shock. People are by nature imperfect and the need to ‘tell’ is compelling. I consider myself hard as nails, nevertheless will admit to a fortnight of flashbacks following the Firefly unpleasantness. I can, unfortunately, remember everything in minute detail.

The flying must, and will, continue, and like life itself, will always be a little dangerous. Brave and dedicated souls.

I was slightly sickened to see that one of the local newspapers on its website has video footage of the accident itself, and a ‘gallery of images’. I work with the media and I should know that to that crowd human life is not terribly significant, and human feelings not worth considering, but as someone who saw the crash take place it distresses me that the images that will be in my head for the rest of my life are being made available to others for what amounts to entertainment. I know I don’t have any right to bang on about how I feel about it, but how must his family feel? Or the rescue services that attended the scene? You can know what is going on without being presented with the images. I just wish the media would show some backbone and not give every gory detail ‘because it is in the public interest’.

Well this basically goes for all tragic incidents which they put out. I saw all the 9/11 stuff just like everybody else on TV, but Im quite sure those who were there got more problems dealing with what they saw than me who just saw it on TV like it’s a movie. Im not defending the use of such images put out for everyone to see though. Seeing a plane go down to someone far away out of the loop so to speak than for you to see it being there are two very different things. I totally agree about not putting out all the gory details and I do feel the english media sometimes goes way over the line as they might have done with this crash. I wouldnt really know. Havent seen the british broadcasts except one on youtube which they could have dropped. No point in seeing the plane go down. A shot of the plane before it goes down and some aftermath shots (done the proper way) would be good enough.

Yes, it was G-HURR. Was previously painted a nightfighter (?) black.

No, it can’t be transferred. British regs are only allocated to one aircraft, an aircraft can reuse one of its older registrations I believe, but they aren’t transferrable.

Am I correct in understanding the aircraft that crashed bore the civvie registration G-HURR?

If so can this registration be transferred to one of the other flying Hurricanes in this country?

Did Brian also fly this Hurricane at Flying Legends this year? At saturday july 7th I made a close up picture of the cockpit with presumably the pilot in it.

No, it was flown by Alan Walker who is one of the regular ARC/Spitfire Ltd pilots. David “Rats” Ratcliffe was flying in the HAC Hurricane from what I can remember.

The problem with any press coverage is the line and where you draw it . I well recall seeing the coverage of Lockerbie live when there was blazing fires in the town. Effectively you were watching funeral pyres . Similarily how many of us have not watched in fascination at the views of Paveway’s destroying a target in Iraq during GW2 .It’s a closeness to the person or event which makes it uncomfortable to watch. In the case of the Hurricane crash – it’s an entirely personal choice if a person choses to watch it or not on an internet site. It doesn’t change the event or outcome in anyway . What is important is that Brian isn’t forgotten – you remember a person in whatever way you feel appropriate.

I am in the process of putting a tribute to Brian onto the HAA website and need a nice head and shoulders photograph of him in happier times. I wonder if someone reading this might be able to help. Please PM me if you can.

Cheers,

Reaper 69