A “wrong turn at the right time” may have saved the life of Christopher Mifsud as a jet from the Shoreham air show smashed into the A27 motorway at Shoreham near Brighton on Saturday. Eleven people were killed.

“I was not using a map and I took a wrong turn, delaying my arrival at Shoreham by a few minutes,” the 48-year-old said on his return from the UK.

He witnessed the fireball but luckily it was from about a kilometre away instead of too close for comfort.

[attach id=451092 size="medium"]The Hawker Hunter T7 which Christopher Mifsud caught on camera last year at the same venue during the RAFA (Royal Air Forces Association) Shoreham Airshow.[/attach]

The 1950s Hawker Hunter jet fell on the motorway after it failed to pull up from a loop manoeuvre. The disaster was captured on video and broadcast around the world.

Mr Mifsud, a photojournalist for The Aviation Magazine, was on his way to the air show to take some pictures. He visits air shows in the UK at least twice a year and this would have been his fourth visit to Shoreham.

Just before entering a tunnel approaching the site from the east, he spotted the landmark Lancing College Chapel and, in the air, what was probably the Hawker Hunter.

“As soon as I emerged from the tunnel I saw the fireball and the black plume of smoke. The airshow includes a stunt by a World War II aircraft, along with a pyrotechnic display, so I was still unsure whether this was part of the show or an accident.

“However, the jet I had spotted before was no longer flying and there was a thick, black cloud of smoke and a series of small explosions… It was a very ugly fire.”

He called an English friend of his who confirmed the scene he had just witnessed was indeed a jet crashing.

The Hawker Hunter T7 which Christopher Mifsud caught on camera last year at the same venue during the RAFA (Royal Air Forces Association) Shoreham Airshow.

Still reeling from the realisation that he had taken that wrong turn at just the right moment, it took him some four hours to get back to his accommodation because of the traffic diversions.

This was not the first time that Mr Mifsud witnessed an airshow accident. In July of 2011 he saw a wartime P-51 Mustang and a Douglas A-1 Skyraider in a mid-air collision in Duxford.

He also saw the collision off Marsamxett of two planes during the Aero GP show in 2006, which killed a pilot.