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A Red Arrows pilot has told an inquest it is his “eternal regret” that he was not able to eject an engineer from his plane before it crashed.
Corporal Jonathan Bayliss, 41, who was born in Dartford, died when the Hawk T1 jet crashed into the runway at RAF Valley in Anglesey, North Wales, on March 20, 2018, but pilot Flight Lieutenant David Stark survived after ejecting moments earlier.
A Service Inquiry Panel (SIP) investigation found the plane had stalled and crashed during a training manoeuvre designed to simulate an engine failure.
Mechanical engineer Corporal Bayliss grew up in Hartley, attended Axton Chase School in Longfield and studied at West Kent College before going on to complete an HND in engineering management at the University of Greenwich.
He worked at Brands Hatch before joining the RAF in 2001.
Giving evidence at an inquest in Caernarfon today (Wednesday), Flt Lt Stark said he had not realised the plane was stalling.
He said: “I quite clearly did not perceive the situation that was developing until the point at which it was as though there was the flick of a switch from ‘This is OK’ to ‘This is absolutely categorically not OK and something needs to be done’.”
The inquest has heard that the systems in the jet did not allow the pilot in the front seat to control the ejection of the rear seat passenger.
Flt Lt Stark said: “It is obviously my eternal regret that the command ejection system is not operated the other way round, in that if I had pulled the handle I could have taken Jon out as well.”
He told the inquest he did not give the usual command of “Eject, eject, eject”.
He said: “My recollection is that the flick of a switch happened and that I recognised that we needed to eject immediately.
“I recall saying a swearword and then ‘Eject’.
“I didn’t say ‘Eject’ more than once, from what I can remember. I think my instinct at the time, and I think this has effectively been confirmed in the report, is that if I’d said ‘Eject’ twice I probably wouldn’t have survived.
“I take no pride in having survived. All I can describe is I perceived that the aircraft was going to crash and, to a degree, instinct took over.”
Starting his evidence on the second day of the inquest, Flt Lt Stark appeared emotional as he offered his condolences to the family of Corporal Bayliss and his partner, Jemma Pidgeon.
He said: “I’d like to take the opportunity to express my profound sorrow at the loss of Jon and the impact it has had on his family, Miss Pidgeon and his friends.
“I hope that this process will enable them to get some answers to what I imagine are many questions relating to the accident.”
Flt Lt Stark, who was wearing an RAF uniform with a poppy pinned to his jacket, said he was knocked unconscious after ejecting from the plane and fractured his right femur.
He told the inquest he had resumed flying in the last three months for the first time since the accident.
The SIP report found his routine did not include “sufficient time for rest”, which was a contributory factor in the crash.
Flt Lt Stark told the inquest: “I don’t think it’s possible to conduct winter training with the Red Arrows without it fatiguing you.”
But he said it was a “baseline” of fatigue and he was not concerned that it would affect his performance.
Corporal Bayliss, who was born in Dartford, joined the RAF in 2001 and in early 2018 was promoted to the Circus team, a small group of highly trained engineers who travel with the Red Arrows and provide technical support away from its base.
The inquest is expected to last until Friday.
