Witnesses tell of horror as ‘human cannonball’ killed

HUNDREDS of people including young children looked on in horror as a “human cannonball” stuntman plunged to his death at a daredevil show.

The 23-year-old man died after a safety net failed during the Scott May’s Daredevil Stunt Show at the Kent County Showground in Detling on Sunday.

Witnesses estimated that the stuntman — named as Matt Cranch, 23, from the Isle of Man — had been launched 30-40ft into the air by the cannon. The safety net lay flat on the ground as he fell head-first to his death.

Rob Hutchinson, 42, watched with his wife and two young children as the human cannonball came out to perform his stunt to close the first half of the show.

Mr Hutchinson, from Tenterden, Kent, said: “The net was already up. He climbed out on top, climbed down into the tube, they gave this countdown then he came out of the tube — he was probably 30 or 40ft in the air at least. He turned over and then, the last picture I’ve got of him, you can see the net is flat on the floor, not up in the air, and he is coming down head-first towards the ground.

“I saw him hit the floor and bounce.”

Mr Hutchinson said it was not immediately apparent what had happened. “It was like a dummy being thrown — almost like they were playing a practical joke.

“Then you thought, ‘No, that would be a bit of a sick joke to play on people, because there’s kids there’. Then it was just like, ‘Oh my God’, and it was deathly silent.”

Mr Hutchinson estimated the crowd had numbered about 2,000 people including several hundred children.

Paul Armstrong said he thought the stuntman had been “elevated to about 30ft in the air”.

“When he was approaching the safety net it seemed to collapse to the ground before he hit it.”

The programme and website for the show describe how the safety net is designed to collapse within seconds of the performer landing on it.