REPORT: Falklands War veteran flying too low to avoid fatal plane crash
Chris Waddington was killed when his biplane nose-dived and crashed at Shobdon Airfield in Herefordshire
A Falklands war hero and Parachute Regiment veteran died after the plane he was flying nose dived and crashed in Herefordshire, a report has found.
The Air Accident Investigation Branch has published its report into the crash at Shobdon Airfield - near Leominster - which killed pilot Chris Waddington.
Firefighters at Shobdon Airfield rushed immediately to the scene when Chris Waddington's Pitts biplane, G-BOXV, which he had owned for 22 years, crashed.
But it was while the 59-year-old was performing stunts over the village airfield in August 2022 that the plane entered a steep nose-down spiral dive.
The Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) said the pilot, nicknamed ‘Boy Wonder’ during his twenty years as a paratrooper, wasn't able to recover the plane before it hit the ground.
The Parachute Regiment said in tribute after the crash “Chris was one of the 10 veterans of the Falklands War who were featured in the recent BBC documentary 'Our Falklands War: A Frontline Story.'
“In 1982, Chris was a 19 year-old 2nd Lieutenant in the 2nd Battalion, Parachute Regiment, fresh out of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and commanded a platoon of 20 men during the Battle of Goose Green.
“He gained the nickname, 'Boy Wonder', as one of the youngest, enthusiastic Parachute Regiment officers in 2 PARA."
He was a second lieutenant at the time of the war in 1982, the most junior officer rank, but was called to lead a platoon of 20 men into the first battle.
After coming of age in the war, he remained a paratrooper for more than 20 years, serving in Bosnia and Iraq.
He later lived in Yarpole, in north Herefordshire, and worked as a security consultant.
The report found the single-seat plane had no obvious faults, but the entry conditions to the initial climbing manoeuvre gave little or no safety margin when the aircraft began to dynamically diverge from the expected flight path.
Entering the manoeuvre with more height and/or speed would likely have increased the pilot’s chances of avoiding the loss of control and/or being able to recover from it safely, it said.
"This accident serves as a reminder that conducting low level acrobatics comes with inherent risks when manoeuvres do not proceed as expected," the AAIB said.