TWO men who died when their plane nosedived into a fishing lake could have survived if they had tried to parachute to safety, a new report reveals.
Instructor Simon Hulme, 33, and his 43-year-old student, Spencer Bennett, were killed when their plane, which had been practising aerobatics above Maldon, crashed in Ulting Lane, Langford, in April last year.
The Russian-built two-seater YAK-52, which had set off from North Weald Airfield as part of a formation flying school, was discovered nose-down in the private lake, with its tail 10ft below the surface.
The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said this week that both pilots wore parachutes but there was no evidence that either had attempted to remove their harnesses or abandon the aircraft.
It read: "Discussions with other participants in the school revealed that the use of these parachutes in this activity was not well understood.
"Group briefing had not included use of parachutes, minimum abandoning heights or relevant procedures."
There was no evidence that such a briefing took place between the deceased, although one may have taken place unobserved, the report revealed.
The formation flying school subsequently introduced compulsory practice drills for abandoning planes.
The AAIB concluded that the aircraft hit the lake after attempting to recover from an inverted spin at 1,800ft and that no technical malfunction or defect in the plane had been identified.
It read: "Inverted spinning is known to be a disorientating experience and the spin in this case continued for at least three turns.
"The student and instructor's lack of experience in inverted spinning may have delayed effective recovery action."
Instructor Simon Hulme, an RAF Flight Lieutenant from Cirencester, Gloucestershire, had described his student, Mr Bennett, a British national living in Holland, as a slow learner but with a "correct attitude", who made slightly more mistakes than others.
The report recorded that the student's handling skills were "below average" but it could not ascertain which of the two men was piloting the plane at the time of the crash.
Three anglers had raised the alarm when the plane hit the water.
Claire Maycook, from Utling, witnessed the crash from a neighbouring field, and told the Chronicle at the time: "I saw three planes in the air doing some aerobatics.
"They'd been around for a while and then all of sudden one went down. I thought it was going to come back up but it didn't. I just couldn't believe it, the whole thing is just awful."
