Dead pilot could have survived

Witnesses said the jet did not seem to slow down on the runway

A pilot who ejected from a jet as it headed towards the M11 motorway may have survived if he had remained in the plane.

Gary Clark ejected from the two-seater Czech L39 jet as it climbed up an embankment and towards a Cambridgeshire stretch of the motorway after overshooting a runway on 2 June 2002.

An inquest jury was told the 45-year-old learner pilot, from Potters Bar, Hertfordshire, was killed when he landed in a field.

The instructor, Andy Gent, 39, who remained in the jet, survived the accident which happened at a private airfield at Duxford.

Emergency brake

Forensic pathologist, Dr Ian Hill, carried out a post-mortem examination on Mr Clark and told the inquest the cause of his death was multiple injuries.

But he added: "If he had stayed within the aircraft he would have lived."

Mr Clark and Mr Gent, had been trying to land at Duxford to refuel.

However, witnesses told the inquest in Cambridge the plane did not seem to slow when it was on the runway and just kept on going.

The jet, which had taken off on a training flight from Harlow in Essex, ended up on the M11 motorway, missing traffic travelling along the road, but causing both lanes to be closed.

Loving husband and father

Air Commodore Timothy Thorn, described as the premier instructor with the L39 jet aircraft in the country, said the plane's emergency brake, which had not been activated, should have been used.

"I can think of no reason why the emergency brake wasn't used," he told the inquest.

Prior to the hearing Mr Clark's widow, Tina, said: "This is not only the 16-month anniversary of my beloved husband's death but the first opportunity I will have to learn the full details of precisely what happened.

"Time has not decreased our pain.

"Our children are too small to know what has happened but one day they will need to understand why they no longer have their father with them."