Three people killed when a Robinson R44 II helicopter crashed and burst into flames in a field on the Isle of Wight on August 25 died of multiple injuries, a coroner's court was told on Monday.
The victims were identified as Captain Simon Hewitt, 54, a commercial flight instructor from Barton-upon-Humber, North Lincolnshire; Justyna Czoska, 52, a riding instructor from Hook Norton, Oxfordshire; and Wojciech (Wojtek) Kowalkowski, 49, a lorry driver from Bloxham, Oxfordshire. A fourth person, a man in his 30s, was airlifted to hospital with injuries.
A coroner's officer told the Isle of Wight coroner's court in Newport that emergency services received multiple 999 calls reporting a helicopter crash on the A3020 Shanklin Road near Ventnor on the morning of August 25. All three named victims were pronounced dead at the scene. Dr. Megan Jenkins, a Home Office–registered pathologist, carried out post-mortem examinations at St Mary's Hospital mortuary on August 27 and gave the provisional cause of death for each as multiple injuries. Caroline Sumeray, senior coroner for the Isle of Wight, adjourned the inquests to March 5 next year.
The helicopter had departed Sandown Airport at about 9 a.m. on August 25 and crashed roughly 20 minutes later. Flight data reviewed by investigators suggested the aircraft climbed to about 800 feet before an unspecified issue occurred 27 seconds prior to impact. The Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) has taken the wreckage to its Farnborough headquarters and said its probe is likely to take about 12 months.
Video footage later released showed the same helicopter taking off from Sandown the night before the crash. The aircraft was removed from the field the day after the accident, with images showing a telehandler lifting the wreckage onto a lorry.
Robinson Helicopter Company chief executive David Smith said the firm was "deeply saddened" by the crash and noted that, based on past outcomes, a large proportion of similar accidents have been attributed to pilot error. His comments, including an assertion that "80 plus per cent" of outcomes are ruled pilot error, prompted criticism from Northumbria Helicopters, which operates the service out of Newcastle International Airport and employed Captain Hewitt.
Northumbria Helicopters called such statements premature and urged restraint while the AAIB investigation is under way. The operator described Mr. Hewitt as "an immensely respected, exceptionally safety conscious and highly skilled flight instructor and commercial pilot," and said any suggestion of pilot error at this stage was not supported by evidence and risked causing distress to grieving families.
Relatives and colleagues paid tribute to the victims. Mr. Hewitt's partner and family said in a statement that he was "the most wonderful, intelligent, kind man and father," and that they were "absolutely broken." Ms. Czoska's daughter, Julia Buzar, 22, said she had spoken to her mother moments before she boarded and later learned from police that the helicopter had crashed. Buzar described her mother as her "only real family" and appealed for help to return the couple's bodies to Poland; a crowdfunding page launched to cover repatriation had raised more than £17,000 by Monday.
Turpins Lodge Riding School in Hook Norton, where Ms. Czoska had worked since March 2024, said she was "very well liked by staff and by customers" and described her as "cheerful, reliable and conscientious." Mr. Kowalkowski's family described him as "the father of two loving children" who would be deeply missed.
Local officials called the crash a tragedy. Isle of Wight East MP Joe Robertson described the incident as such, and Shanklin Town Council praised the pilot for bringing the helicopter down in a field away from residential properties.
The AAIB will continue its formal investigation and has not yet published findings on the sequence of events that led to the loss of control and impact. The inquests will consider the coroner's provisional medical findings alongside evidence gathered by investigators when the hearings resume in March.