Thousands of spectators watched as the aircraft broke the sound barrier and then disintegrated in the sky above them and fell to earth.
Thirty-one people, including pilot John Derry and onboard flight test observer Anthony Richards, were killed. Derry had became the first British pilot to break the sound barrier, during a record attempt exactly four years before.
Since then all displays aircraft at airshows don’t fly over the crowd.
The coroner's jury recorded the deaths of Derry and Richards as "died accidentally in the normal course of their duty."
The jury recorded that "the deaths [of the spectators] were accidental", adding that "no blame is attached to Mr. John Derry".The accident report of 8 April 1953 stated the manoeuvring had caused an airframe instability because of a faulty D-nose leading edge arrangement (which had successfully been used in the lighter subsonic de Havilland Vampire). The redesigned DH.110 resumed flights in June 1953 and was eventually developed into the de Havilland Sea Vixen naval fighter.
Watch on youtube.comThis photograph was taken by a spectator called Herbert Orr who was on the 'spot' at the moment of impact of the main aircraft section.
Courtesy of Grayson Ottoway
