I am concerned that the inquest of the pilot Brian Brown, or at least your reporting of it, (The Argus, November 26) may have denigrated a good man.
I was at the Shoreham Airshow on the day and, despite the amount of air activity at the time, was looking at the two aircraft mentioned when the incident occurred.
My impression at the time was that the lagging aircraft (piloted by Mr Brown) had lost a bit of forward speed in the relatively tight (but not excessively so) right-hand turning manoeuvre the two aircraft had just performed and he had dipped the nose in order to pick up more air speed.
This resulted in a shallow dive with the aircraft disappearing behind the trees and after a few seconds of non-reappearance, I realised it had crashed, with confirmation of this when the fireball went up.
This contrasts vividly with your description of his plane rolling 270 degrees to the left followed by a nosedive.
I will agree that on that day I had my doubts about the safety aspects of so many aircraft flying around simulating wartime dogfighting – I felt it was an accident waiting to happen.
William Culbert Penhill Road Lancing
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