A friend of a Red Arrows pilot who died after he was ejected from his cockpit has described seeing him being hurled through the Perspex canopy of his plane and 300ft into the air.
Corporal David Morris watched in horror as Flight Lieutenant Sean Cunningham was thrown out of his Hawk T1 aircraft while it was still on the ground.
The 35-year-old was a former member of the Lossiemouth-based 617 “Dambusters” Squadron and flew Tornado GR4s in the Iraq War.
He was fatally injured after being ejected from his plane while it was on the ground at an airfield in Lincolnshire.
The parachute on the ejector seat did not open and he later died in hospital as a result of multiple injuries.
Giving evidence at the inquest into his death, Cpl Morris, a Survival Equipment Fitter or “squipper” with the RAF, said he was not far from Flt Lt Cunningham’s jet at the time of the tragedy as the Red Arrows team prepared to fly to RAF Valley in Wales.
Ground crew had been carrying out their pre-flight checks, as had the pilots in their cockpits, when he became aware that something had gone wrong for Flt Lt Cunningham.
“The canopy filled with smoke and Flight Lieutenant Cunningham went from his seat through the canopy,” he said.
Cpl Morris was forced to pause to compose himself before he continued talking as he recalled the events of the day.
He said he was standing with a colleague when the canopy blew, scattering pieces of Perspex across the ground which they had to duck to avoid, and it took a few seconds to realise what had happened.
He told the inquest he had to watch the trajectory of the ejection seat through the air because he was aware it should separate from the ejected pilot and it was unclear where they would land.
However, the inquest heard that the seat did not come away from Flt Lt Cunningham who remained attached to it until he hit the ground.
Cpl Morris said: “I watched it from start to finish and when I saw the drogue deploy the seat stabilised, but from where I was standing it looked like Flight Lieutenant Cunningham was trying to stabilise himself.
“I could see his limbs moving and then the seat seemed to come to some sort of position where it was falling properly and that’s when I thought it would separate from Flight Lieutenant Cunningham.
“He came down almost in slow motion, but obviously fairly quickly and hit the floor. I could hear and feel the thud beneath our feet.”
Colleagues rushed to Flt Lt Cunningham’s side but Cpl Morris said it was obvious he was terribly injured.
“I knew it was bad,” he told the inquest.
Asked by Richard Seabrook, counsel to the inquest, if he saw any signs of life, Cpl Morris paused to take a deep breath before answering: “No.”
He told the inquest he had been quite close to the pilot, and on the morning of the incident had shared some banter, during which Flt Lt Cunningham had put his arm around him.
Meanwhile, the squadron leader of the Red Arrows told the inquest he was shocked at the lack of resources among the team when he returned after time away.
The fatal accident involving Flt Lt Cunningham happened at RAF Scampton on November 8, 2011. The inquest is being held at Lincoln Coroner’s Court.