AN RAF reservist killed alongside a teenage cadet was "dead before the aircraft hit the ground" following a mid-air crash with a glider, an inquest jury has found.
Flight Lieutenant Mike Blee, 62, and Nicholas Rice, 15, died after the RAF training plane they were in collided with a glider over Abingdon in 2009.
Their craft took 24 seconds to plummet to the ground after the collision on June 14, Oxford Coroner's Court heard.
A jury of four men and six women took just over 11 hours to return a narrative verdict this afternoon.
The panel said its verdict was one of accidental death with a number of contributory factors, including Flt Lt Blee's serious spinal condition, which meant his ability to look out was compromised and left his back vulnerable to breaks.
The inquest had heard evidence that Flt Lt Blee - who was piloting the plane - might have been killed on impact with the glider, such was the severity of his back problem.
The jury foreman told the court: "The majority of the jury, nine to one, agree that the pilot was dead before the aircraft hit the ground."
She told the coroner that both deaths were contributed to by the pilot's medical condition and subsequent incapacitation after the crash, adding that a lack of abandonment training contributed to Nicholas's death.
The week-long inquest heard that the two-seater Tutor plane nosedived after the crash at 4,150ft.
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