Families spoke of their grief as an inquest into the 11 Shoreham Airshow crash deaths opened – seven years after the tragedy.
The 11 victims were killed when a Hawker Hunter jet crashed on to the A27 in West Sussex in August 2015.
Caroline Schilt paid tribute to son Jacob, 23, who was on his way to a football match with Matthew Grimstone when the plane struck their car, killing both instantly.
She told the inquest: “What happened to them is unthinkable. They were completely defenceless.
“It’s seven years since we lost Jacob and I can honestly say that I think of him every day from the moment I wake up to the moment we go to sleep.
“Our lives are tormented by thinking what he could have been.”
The father of Jacob’s Worthing United teammate Matthew, also 23, said: “Matthew lost his life due to an aircraft being flown purely for entertainment, for fun – for those attending an air show.
“This we find hard to comprehend and difficult to bear.
“All his hopes, all his dreams, all the things he never got to do. His gentle nature, his kind spirit, his one-liners – they live on in all of us and that will never die.”
Another victim, 72-year-old Graham Mallinson, was a keen photographer. He had been at the show to get shots of a Vulcan bomber on one of its last flights.
His family described the retired electrical engineer as a “true gentleman”, the “kindest, gentlest and most generous of men”.
Pilot Andrew Hill was charged with 11 counts of manslaughter by gross negligence but found not guilty on all counts in March 2019. He maintains he has no recollection of the crash.
Senior coroner Penelope Schofield opened the full inquest in Horsham, West Sussex, and apologised to the families for their seven-year wait for answers.
She said: “I am so sorry you have waited so long.” The inquest will continue tomorrow.
