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| Red Arrows death: Ejection seat firm fined £1.1m | Red Arrows death: Ejection seat firm fined £1.1m |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| An ejection seat manufacturer prosecuted over the death of a Red Arrows pilot thrown from his jet has been fined £1.1m. | An ejection seat manufacturer prosecuted over the death of a Red Arrows pilot thrown from his jet has been fined £1.1m. |
| Flt Lt Sean Cunningham, 35, was ejected while conducting pre-flight safety checks at RAF Scampton in 2011. | Flt Lt Sean Cunningham, 35, was ejected while conducting pre-flight safety checks at RAF Scampton in 2011. |
| The parachute on the seat did not then deploy and the airman was fatally injured. | |
| Martin-Baker Aircraft Ltd previously admitted to breaching safety laws at Lincoln Crown Court. | |
| Sentencing the company, Mrs Justice Carr said it was "an entirely preventable tragedy". | |
| The court previously heard an assessment by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was that such an incident would happen only once in more than 100 years. | The court previously heard an assessment by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was that such an incident would happen only once in more than 100 years. |
| It was also told the firm had a "good system" in place and it "just failed in this instance". | It was also told the firm had a "good system" in place and it "just failed in this instance". |
| However, the judge said: "A significant number of pilots, and also potential passengers, were exposed to the risk of harm over a lengthy period." | However, the judge said: "A significant number of pilots, and also potential passengers, were exposed to the risk of harm over a lengthy period." |
| "Here the risk of harm was of the highest level - death. This was, in the words of his father, an entirely preventable tragedy." | "Here the risk of harm was of the highest level - death. This was, in the words of his father, an entirely preventable tragedy." |
| At a previous hearing, prosecutor Rex Tedd QC said there was a risk "to many pilots over a lengthy period". | |
| "If the pilot was ejected from the Hawk aircraft, two shackles would not release from one another and would jam together and the main parachute would not deploy," he added. | |
| "The pilot would be several hundred feet in the air and there could only be one result of that, and that is the pilot's death." | |
| Mr Tedd also told the court: "Sean's two biggest fears in life were being ejected from an aircraft, and the injuries that he would sustain, and dying at a young age. Horrifically he experienced both." | |
| Martin-Baker Aircraft Ltd had already agreed to pay #550,000 in prosecution costs. | |
| The company fell short of the appropriate standard, the judge added. | |
| Timeline of events: |