This is the first picture of a depressed RAF pilot who killed four members of a family in a suicidal motorway crash.
Richard Woods – seen here in flight fatigues and helmet – drove 1.1 miles in the wrong direction on the fast lane of the M6 near Tenby in Cumbria for at least 57 seconds as motorists had to serve to avoid him on October 15, 2024.
Woods, 40, died in the head-on collision with Jaroslaw Rossa, 42, and his partner Jade McEnroe, 33, and his sons Filip, 15, and Dominic, seven.
But on Thursday Cumbria Police said the RAF pilot who was four times over the legal drink-drive limit and was found with a two-thirds empty gin bottle in his Skoda Fabia car, would have been charged with manslaughter had he survived.
Miss McEnroe’s seven-year-old son, Arran, survived his injuries after a workman jumped out of his Transit van and used a jack to smash the rear windscreen of Mr Rossa’s Toyota Yaris and pulled him out from the burning vehicle.
Richard Woods – seen right in flight fatigues and helmet – drove 1.1 miles in the wrong direction on the fast lane of the M6 near Tenby in Cumbria for at least 57 seconds as motorists had to swerve to avoid him on October 15, 2024
Jaroslaw Rossa and sons Dominic and Filip were killed along with Jade McEnroe. Her son Arran Martin, right, was the only survivor
The M6 crash on the northbound carriage near Cumbria saw a fireball engulf the Glasgow-bound Toyota
Richard John Woods, 40, was almost four times the legal drink-drive limit when his blue Skoda Fabia ploughed into a Toyota Yaris on the M6 northbound carriageway
Arran was seriously injured and had to be airlifted to the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle (pictured: An air ambulance at the scene)
Detective Sergeant Deborah Story, of Cumbria Police’s serious road collision investigation unit, told the inquest into their deaths that Woods would have been prosecuted on four counts of manslaughter had he lived.
She said she noted that Mr Woods went from ‘putting himself’ against larger vehicles where only he would be likely to be harmed to ‘putting himself’ against smaller vehicles in which the ‘likelihood of harm to other people is significantly high’.
The officer went on: ‘My assessment of all of the evidence was that Mr Woods deliberately caused the collision.
‘Had Mr Woods survived, regardless of any injuries, I would have sought four charges of manslaughter.’
Woods widow was not available for comment when contacted on Thursday at the family home in Ely, Cambs.
Woods, originally from Hexham, Northumbria, was a flight lieutenant and then squadron leader during a distinguished 14-year RAF career as a fast jet pilot.
He toured Afghanistan twice, completed three tours of Iraq – receiving a commendation for one – before leaving the RAF in 2019.
He latterly worked for BAE Systems, based at RAF Marham in Norfolk, as a lead contractor instructor pilot.
The inquest heard he had a history of anxiety and detrimental alcohol use, for which he latterly received professional help.
