Jury blames health and safety failures

A jury looking into the inquest of the death of Horace Livall, who fell 30ft to his death from an unsafe access gantry at the Concorde museum at Filton Airfield, has blamed a lack of health and safety enforcement by the exhibition organisers.

Following four hours of deliberation the jury returned an open verdict and criticised the lack of communication regarding health and safety at the site, Thisisbristol.co.uk reports.

Those considering the case found there was no thorough risk assessment carried out by bosses, as well as a lack of communication between Airbus and BAC on health and safety issues and an unsatisfactory duty of care.

Spokesman Christopher Taylor, reading a statement for Mr Livall's family, said the Concorde was opened too early.

"We feel that those responsible should have undertaken proper health and safety checks which would have alerted them to the obvious gaps that existed between the aircraft and the gantry when boarding Concorde," the website reported him as saying.

The final flight of Concorde was to Filton in November 2003.