Coroner: Red Arrows pilot's seat was 'entirely useless'

A coroner has criticised the manufacturer of an ejector seat for failing to warn the RAF of defects which led to the death of a Red Arrows pilot.

Flight Lieutenant Sean Cunningham, who was 35 and from Binley near Coventry, died after he was ejected from his Hawk T1 aircraft while on the ground at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire and propelled 220ft in the air on November 8 2011.

Central Lincolnshire coroner Stuart Fisher recorded a narrative verdict after a three-week inquest.

The coroner added seven RAF personnel had 19 opportunities between the final flight on November 4 and the day of the incident to check the ejection seat firing handle but did not notice it was in the unsafe position.

He said "repeated failure to notice this" could only be due to the checks "not being done at all or not done sufficiently carefully by each individual".

The inquest heard that the ejection seat firing handle had been left in an unsafe position, meaning it could accidentally activate the seat.

The coroner also said that Martin Baker was aware of issues with the over-tightening of crucial nuts and bolts in the mechanism of the seat which would cause the main parachute not to deploy properly.

Mr Fisher said that, on the day of the incident, a shackle jammed and stopped the main parachute from opening and Flt Lt Cunningham being separated from the seat.

An official from the seat manufacturers Martin Baker told the inquest it should have warned the RAF not to over-tighten a vital nut. The firm had warned some of its customers that if a nut was too tight the ejector seat chute was likely to fail.