AN inexperienced pilot caused a fatal crash by recklessly attempting to loop-the-loop in a Tiger Moth, a court heard this afternoon.

Scott Hoyle is accused of causing the death of passenger Orlando Rogers when he lost control of the biplane during an attempted aerobatic manoeuvre over Manswood, east Dorset, on May 15, 2011.

The plane entered a spin and crashed, causing Mr Rogers fatal injuries.

Prosecuting at Winchester Crown Court, Michael Bowes QC said Hoyle – who, like his passenger, was a former Royal Marine – had already taken another friend up in the aircraft that day and had performed loops then.

“Possibly encouraged by the previous experience of carrying out such a manoeuvre at that very low height quite fortuitously without mishap, what he was intending to do was plainly dangerous and created a risk of serious harm,” he said.

Mr Bowes said that Hoyle, 47, was “inexperienced” as a pilot and a “novice in type” at flying the vintage de Havilland Tiger Moth aircraft, which he co-owned.

He said the loops carried out by the defendant earlier that day, with Nicholas Diamond as the passenger, took place at around 1,000 and 1,600 feet, far below the recommended mini-mum altitude for beginners of 5,000 feet.

Mr Bowes told the jury that 26-year-old Mr Rogers, who weighed more than 18 stone and was 6ft and 2ins tall, was so large that his presence in the front cockpit of the aircraft would in fact have restricted movement of the control stick.

He said the type of safety harness worn by Mr Rogers would also have had this effect, preventing Hoyle from regaining control of the aircraft when the loop-the-loop failed.

Mr Bowes said that Hoyle claimed he had not been carrying out a loop.

The court heard that the defendant had told police at interview that the aircraft became stuck in a spin to the left and he had been unable to correct this because the rudder was jammed.

The prosecution says that the plane was actually in a spin to the right when it hit the ground and due to the low altitude even an experienced pilot would not have had time to restore safe flight.

Hoyle, of Charborough Road, Broadstone, pleaded not guilty to one count of manslaughter and one count of endangering the safety of an aircraft or any person in an aircraft.

The trial continues.