A mother whose son was killed in the Shoreham air show disaster has spoken about the tragedy in a new documentary. Jacob Schilt, 23, and his friend Matthew Grimstone, 23, were travelling together in a car to play for Worthing United on August 22, 2015, when a vintage Hawker Hunter jet crashed into their vehicle on the A27 in West Sussex.
Caroline, Jacob's mum, recalled the moment he left home that day. "When Jacob left, we were all on the doorstep saying goodbye to him – including my dad – which feels quite poignant now," she said in the latest episode of Cause of Death on Channel 5, which focused on the lives of the 11 men killed in the crash.
A Devastating Phone Call
The friends were heading to their football match when the jet descended and struck their car, which was the first vehicle hit by the aircraft. Caroline, 64, described receiving a call from a member of the Worthing United team. "He said, 'We are really scared here because Jacob and Matt haven't turned up'," she remembered.
"I was phoning Jacob's phone frequently in the hope that he was going to reply. We were talking to the Grimstones on the phone, they hadn't heard anything from Matt, we were all trying to phone Matt and Jacob. I phoned 101 to see if the police had any information, but of course it was chaos."
Forensic anthropologist Dr Julie Roberts, who was called to the scene, said the disaster site resembled a "bomb scene". She added: "The first thing that struck me was the scale of it really. Debris everywhere. Bits of aeroplane all over the dual carriageway, fuel spillage, cars, bicycles, lots of broken trees. It was apparent from the early stages of the operation that multiple individuals had died as a result of the plane crash, but we didn't know how many."
Confirmation of the Deaths
That night, Matthew's dad was told by police that his son's car had been found at the scene. It later emerged that Matthew and Jacob were in the car struck by the jet, and their causes of death were confirmed as head injuries. Caroline recalled receiving the news: "I took the phone call. You know, they were very apologetic, 'Terribly sorry to tell you, but Jacob is dead.' He had officially been identified."
Pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd, who performed the Home Office post-mortem examination on Jay Slater's remains, explained on the documentary: "Matthew and Jacob were struck directly by the aircraft after the first point of impact and were killed by that collision. They were not subject to the plane collision but were protected by the car and were intact. So the investigation can much more quickly establish that their deaths were caused not by fire, smoke or by fragmentation."
Aftermath and Legal Proceedings
The crash occurred when pilot Andrew Hill, a former British Airways employee, failed to complete an acrobatic loop-the-loop stunt. The manoeuvre in the vintage 1950s jet caused it to break into four parts, destroying eight vehicles on the dual carriageway and killing 11 people.
Mr Hill faced 11 counts of gross negligence manslaughter and stood trial at the Old Bailey, but he was cleared by the jury after hearing evidence about him being cognitively impaired during the flight. Caroline recalled how the families held hands during the verdict: "It was all not guilty, not guilty, for all 11. And it was awful. Everyone thought that it all pointed to him being found guilty and then he wasn't."
Three years after the acquittal, a coroner ruled that the 11 who died were unlawfully killed, with Mr Hill's poor flying recorded as the reason. Caroline said of the inquest revelation: "We all got up and hugged each other and it was just, we were so grateful."
The families now meet every year for a remembrance service. Anthony Mallinson, whose father James Graham Mallinson, 72, died in the disaster, said: "Us 11 families, we've now become a collaborative group of families that look after one another and can support one another in good times and bad times." The Shoreham air disaster claimed the lives of Anthony Brightwell, 53, from Hove; Daniele Polito, 23, from Goring-by-Sea; Dylan Archer, 42, from Brighton; Jacob Schilt, 23, from Brighton; James Mallinson, 72, from Newick; Mark Reeves, 53, from Seaford; Mark Trussler, 54, from Worthing; Matthew Grimstone, 23, from Brighton; Matthew Jones, 24, from Littlehampton; Maurice Abrahams, 76, from Brighton; and Richard Smith, 26, from Hove. Cause of Death airs on Wednesday October 28 at 9pm on Channel 5.
