Flight Lieutenant Sean Cunningham died after he was ejected from his cockpit while on the ground Photo: PA
By Ben Farmer, Defence Correspondent
1:02PM GMT 10 Jan 2014
The hectic schedule of the Red Arrows aerobatics team and a shortage of experienced engineers meant there was little time to work on their aircraft, the inquest into the death of a pilot killed by an ejection seat accident heard.
The number of engineers working for the team had been cut over the previous four years, but there had been no reduction in the work load.
Flt Lt Sean Cunningham fell to his death after being blasted 300 feet into the air when the ejection seat in his Hawk T1 fired as he prepared for takeoff at RAF Scampton.
A three week inquest into his death is focussing on why the seat fired and why its parachute then failed to open on November 8, 2011.
The inquest at Lincoln Cathedral Centre was told the Red Arrows team was short of up to 20 engineers and many were on their first posting, with little experience.
Sqd Ldr Martin Higgins, officer in charge of safety, said he was surprised at the shortages that summer after returning to the team from four years away.
In an interview he gave after an investigation into the death, he said: “The big change I have seen is that resource is now a big issue. It is a big ask on the boys downstairs [the engineers]. They understand what they need to do and really want to do it but I think they are at the stage where they need some resources.
“When I looked at the board for August it took my breath away. It was quite busy with very few days off.
“It surprised me. There were very few opportunities for engineers to get their hands on the aeroplanes.
“Clearly four years had passed since I left the team. The aeroplanes were not getting any younger.
“I assumed that the tempo would naturally have decreased with less resources that were at hand.
“There were fewer engineers. In 2007 there were far more experienced personnel at the corporal-plus level. It seemed to me that a lot of dilution had occurred."
The inquest heard earlier that 35-year-old Flt Lt Cunningham died of multiple injuries when he hit the ground and his life would have been saved if his parachute had opened.
Ground crew at RAF Scampton, in Lincolnshire, recalled the accident.
Cpl David Morris, who was standing in front of Flt Lt Cunningham's Hawk, said "The canopy filled with smoke and then Flt Lt Cunningham went with his seat through the canopy. As the canopy blew it took a couple of seconds to register what had happened.
"Then we ran to avoid parts of the canopy hitting us. I knew at some point the ejection seat was going to separate and it was going to fall to the ground.
"It looked like Flt Lt Cunningham was trying to stabilise himself. I could see his limbs moving. It looked as if he was trying to get his balance. The parachute didn't open. The seat came down and hit the floor, I could feel the thud. I saw the whole thing."
Flt Lt Cunningham, an Iraq War veteran from Coventry, was the second Red Arrows pilot to be killed in less than three months after the death of Flt Lt Jon Egging, 33, in an air show crash in Dorset in August 2011.
He had joined the RAF in 2000, and flew Tornado GR4s during the Iraq War as part of 617 The Dambusters Squadron based at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland.
The inquest continues and is due to hear evidence from dozens of witnesses.
