Jockey 'failed in bid to save pilot'

A jockey has told an inquest how he struggled to save a pilot from the wreckage of a burning plane.

Jockeys Ray Cochrane and champion jockey Frank Dettori escaped from the plane when it crashed on Newmarket racecourse, but pilot Patrick Mackey, 52, died.

Cochrane told the jury inquest in Suffolk how he struggled in vain to rescue Mr Mackey who was trapped in the burning wreckage.

He also said he remembered the plane hopping on take-off.

The jury at Bury St Edmunds heard the jockeys were the only passengers in the twin-engined Piper Seneca which was heading for Goodwood.

The plane took off from Newmarket's July racecourse on June 1 last year then clipped a ditch and burst into flames.

The jury returned a verdict of accidental death.