British Airways pilot killed wife, planned to crash his plane

The family of the wife of a British pilot who planned to crash his jumbo jet to ‘make a statement’ have spoken out for the first time about airline safety.

Robert Brown, 47, killed his wife Joanna with a hammer in 2010, following a long divorce, the Telegraph reported.

Getty file photo.

He had been due to fly a Boeing 747 jumbo jet from Heathrow to Lagos the next day. He told his trial: "I didn't want to be another husband who kills his wife and then himself and nobody cares. I thought if I got to work I could crash an aircraft, or fly to Lagos and crash it there. I wanted to make a statement."

The British Airways pilot was convicted of manslaughter.

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Those close to Joanna have told media her death shows airlines are not doing enough to monitor the mental health of pilots and that last week’s Germanwings disaster shows that nothing has improved.

Joanna’s mother, Diana Parkes, said Brown used his mental state to get away with murder.

“Yet he was continuing to fly as a BA captain until days before she was killed,” Parkes added.

"His claim in court that he planned to ditch a commercial flight the day after he killed her was chilling to hear and yet there has never been any acknowledgement from British Airways that lessons can be learnt from that."

Joanna’s best friend Hetti Barkworth-Nanton said pilots should be accessed more than every 12 months.

”Robert's last assessment had been in December and he killed Jo the following October," she said.