£5 million Settlement for the family of Pilot

The family of Hugh Paton, who died in a plane crash in Cornwall, have reached a settlement with the MoD in advance of a claim for damages at the High Court which was due to start next week. The MoD deny liability for the crash which killed Mr Paton and also involved his family.

On the day of the accident, the family travelled from Elstree airfield in Hertfordshire to Cornwall in a Cessna aircraft piloted by Mr Paton. He was given permission to land at St. Mawgan airfield shortly before encountering an RAF Sea King Helicopter. Mr Paton took emergency action to avoid the helicopter but lost control of the aircraft in the wake created by the helicopter's rotors. The light aircraft crashed at the side of the runway. Mr Paton freed his wife and their daughters from the aircraft but he sadly died nine days later from burns sustained during the crash.

Speaking about the settlement, Mrs Paton's solicitor Julian Chamberlayne of Stewarts Law stated:

"This is a bitter-sweet settlement. On one side is the compensation, on the other is the death of Mrs Paton's husband. This brings to an end a chapter in her life, but she feels angry that she has had to fight so hard for it. It should not have been a fight. It should have been straightforward, and she genuinely feels aggrieved that she has had to go to these lengths, at some cost and risk to herself to get a result in the last working day before the court date. But she is a tough-minded character and she always felt that her husband's death was not his fault."