Exclusive:
Parents who lost a son in the Shoreham airshow disaster in 2015, sadly lost their daughter just a few years later, leaving them heartbroken for a second time
The parents of a footballer killed in the Shoreham airshow disaster have told of a second unimaginable heartache – the tragedy of losing their daughter a few years later.
Caroline, 64, and Bob Schilt, 70, open up for the first time today as an inquest into the death of Louise, 34, begins.
Their son Jacob was just 23 when he became one of 11 men who died in the 2015 airshow inferno as he made his way to play football for Worthing United.
Eight years on, they found his sister Louise dead at the family home. Caroline and Bob had left her watching television when they drove to nearby Clayton cemetery, in West Sussex, to visit Jacob’s grave.
They were gone for an hour. Caroline said: “When we came back, we found Louise dead. Bob tried CPR and the ambulance was there very quickly but she was gone.”
They say that Louise was a fit and active woman before contracting a mystery virus in December 2021. She was diagnosed with an enlarged heart after doctors told her she might have cancer.
Her condition worsened and the keen horse rider struggled to breathe, her parents said. The day she died, more than a year later in April 2023, Louise had been discharged from hospital after having fluid drained from her chest for a third time.
Her parents say she was sent home 30 minutes after the procedure. Caroline said: “She was sending messages from the hospital saying how difficult the chest drain was being. She plainly wasn’t all right as she died about two hours later, when I brought her home she couldn’t even get out of the car.”
The retired teachers, from Brighton, believe hospital bosses should take some responsibility for Louise’s death.
They also fear that her death was linked to coronavirus vaccines and a booster jab. They say that Louise got worse after having the second jab. Bob said: “Nothing gets joined up. They never found out what the virus was. They never did the investigation to find out.” And on how they are dealing with the loss of their children, Bob added: “We’re not armour plated but we are coping with it.”
They also said letters from the hospital continued to arrive.
“They didn’t even know she was dead,” Bob said. “The coroner’s officer informed them she had died and the letters kept coming.”
An inquest beginning today will analyse whether the care Louise received played any part in her death.
