A disability campaigner who was paralysed from the chest down died when her microlight crashed while filming a TV series for Apple, an inquest has heard.
Claire Lomas, 44, who was the first person to complete a marathon with the help of a “bionic” suit, died five weeks after the adapted aircraft she was travelling in “veered off the runway” and hit a large rock while landing in Amman, Jordan.
The mother of two had become a noted campaigner for disability charities after a horse riding accident in 2007 left her paralysed.
Louise Pinder, senior coroner for Rutland and North Leicestershire, told the inquest on Tuesday that Lomas suffered multiple severe traumatic injuries during the crash on 15 July and was taken to King Hussein medical centre, where she died on 22 August.
The hearing, which took place at County Hall in Glenfield, Leicester, heard that at the time of her accident, Lomas had been wearing an Apple Vision Pro headset and was in the process of filming content for the tech company to be used in a series promoting the product.
Lina Zilinskaite, a senior producer for Atlantic Productions, told the inquest that Apple had commissioned her company to create the series, and Lomas was one of several athletes selected to perform “some sort of challenge or feat” in different episodes.
Zilinskaite told the court that Lomas had been “very enthusiastic and keen and excited about the opportunity” and that she had obtained a licence to fly a microlight, the small aircraft she was piloting at the time of the crash, years before the series was commissioned.
This was supported by Ben Ashman, a microlight designer and manufacturer, who said that Lomas had bought her own version of the aircraft between 2022 and 2023, which had been adapted to support her inability to use her feet.
Speaking on the events leading up to the crash, Zilinskaite told the hearing that Lomas’ flight had been scheduled for the day before but was cancelled “because of strong winds”. Zilinskaite also said that there had been test flights using the Vision Pro in the UK without Lomas, and that she had flown the microlight herself before the accident, albeit without wearing the headset.
On the day of the flight, the inquest was told that Lomas had taken off from the runway in Jordan without issue and remained in the air for roughly 15 minutes before attempting to land, but that upon descending her “approach was not quite straight on” and that she “veered off the runway” before striking a large rock.
The inquest heard that Lomas, who had completed the London Marathon over the course of 17 days in 2012 with the assistance of “bionic” legs, had been “excited” to return to the UK after the crash and see her family, but that her health rapidly deteriorated after catching an infection which led to her death.
Pinder said Lomas’ family had raised concerns about the quality of care in the Jordanian hospital, but that it was not within her jurisdiction to investigate that formally.
The inquest continues.
