Charity campaigner’s death from microlight crash injuries was accidental, coroner rules

Claire Lomas had been filming a series for Apple TV in Amman, Jordan when she lost control of the aircraft The death of a disability campaigner after a microlight crash while filming a TV programme for Apple was an accident, a coroner has concluded. An inquest heard on Thursday that Claire Lomas, 44, died of severe traumatic injuries on 22 August 2024, five weeks after a light aircraft that she had been piloting while filming a promotional video for Apple’s Vision Pro headset “veered off the runway” and crashed into a rock in Amman, Jordan, on 15 July. After she was paralysed from the waist down from a horse-riding accident in 2007, Lomas became a charity campaigner, raising more than £900,000 for the Nicholls Spinal Injury Foundation before her death and becoming the first person to finish a marathon with the aid of a “bionic” suit when she completed the London Marathon in 2012 . Concerns about Lomas’s confidence to fly the microlight were also explored during the hearing.

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Scoop News DeskAmman · Published Thursday, August 20, 2026 at 4:49 PM UTCUpdated Friday, August 21, 2026 at 4:06 PM UTC

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Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it matters In a statement, Katherine Allen, a lawyer speaking on behalf of the Lomas family, said the inquest’s conclusion marked “the end of a very difficult, emotional process” for them and that “the family continue to live with the devastating consequences of their loss”. “Claire was deeply loved and her death has left a profound and enduring void in their lives,” Allen said.

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