What happened in the final minutes of a flying lesson that ended in the tragic deaths of two Flintshire men may never be known, an inquest has heard.
Experienced pilot John Green, 50, and his student, dad-of-one Karl Hendrickson, 43, died ‘instantaneously’ when their Piper PA-38 Tomahawk crash-landed in a field at Bruera near Chester on August 16, 2012.
Summing up the two-day inquest held in Warrington, which heard evidence from witnesses, emergency services and representatives from the Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB), Alan Moore, assistant coroner for Cheshire, said: “What happened in this case? Very sadly only Mr Green and Mr Hendrickson could answer that question with any degree of certainty.”
Mr Green, who worked for Flintshire Flying School and Mr Hendrickson, of Caergwrle, had been in the air less than an hour when tragedy stuck.
The inquest heard from witness Nicholas Whitley, of Wrexham, how he had seen the aircraft descending nose first at a very steep angle, heading straight down towards the ground.
He said he had it in view for a matter of seconds before it disappeared behind a tree line but knew it was in trouble.
Mr Whitley, who had been in his car when he saw the plane, was first on the scene and called emergency services.
Fire and paramedic teams arrived and both men were pronounced dead at the scene. A post mortem examination revealed they both died of multiple injuries consistent with a light aircraft crash.
Student log books indicated that Mr Hendrickson had been scheduled to complete a stalling exercise during the lesson, which was his eighth with Mr Green.
It was heard during the inquest how American experts had raised safety concerns about carrying out these training maneuvers at low altitudes.
It was said that a revision was made to the pilot training manual in May 2012 advising a rise in altitude when carrying out stalling exercises.
This was not widely available in the UK until September 2012 and it is unknown whether Mr Green was aware of these changes.
Andrew Blackie of the AAIB said it was impossible to know the height of the plane or its speed prior to the crash.
He said: “We don't know what maneuver plane had done in the air but we do know it had struck the ground during a spin.”
The inquest also heard how the 31-year-old plane had been fitted with a new engine earlier than year and another instructor had reported it to be ‘rough running’ on the runway three weeks prior to the incident.
This was discovered to be a double spark plug failure which was repaired 30 flying hours before the crash on August 16.
The jury returned an open verdict after three hours deliberating.
