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May 15th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda Most of his earnings were set aside for the longed-for trip around the world with his girlfriend of four years, Hayley.
‘He was always a keen traveller and
making a big trip was something we’d discussed,’ she says. ‘We planned
and saved for it for two years.’
The ten-month trip would start in
Paris in February 2010, and end mid-December, when the couple would fly
home from South America in time for a family Christmas.
Like any parents, the Cokers admit
they had reservations. ‘But you can’t wrap your kids in cotton wool,’
says Kathy. ‘And it was something he really wanted to do.’
The entire family drove to Heathrow
airport to bid him farewell. And, in the months that followed, Bradley
and Hayley kept in regular touch via a detailed blog full of
‘Reading it was like watching a film,’ says Chris.
‘They were obviously having the time of their lives.’
At the end of August, six months into
their trip, the young couple arrived in New Zealand. Back home, Chris
and Kathy were relieved that Bradley and Hayley had safely navigated
more unstable regimes like Cambodia and Thailand and arrived in the
safety of a Commonwealth country.
Despite that, his mother recalls feeling an anxiety she could not shake off.
‘I had this very strong sense of
wanting to speak to Brad around that time. Now I wonder if it was a
sixth sense that something was wrong.’
Hayley and Bradley, of course, had no such misgivings: both had been bowled over by the scenery of New Zealand.
And it was that beauty, Hayley says,
that prompted Bradley, in a moment of spontaneous enthusiasm, to sign up
for a skydive. He had done one just once before, back in the UK.
She recalls: ‘We were heading for a
place called Franz Josef, which was situated on a glacier and in a
particularly beautiful spot.
‘We’d woken that morning to a lovely
day and he said: “When am I going to get the opportunity to skydive over
a glacier again?” So he signed up.
Final weeks: The couple in Auckland, two weeks before the accident
Vietnam: Bradley’s parents feared for his safety while he travelled through Asia, but were convinced he’d be safe in New Zealand
‘I’d already done a dive a week
earlier so opted out and said I would see him back at the hostel we’d
booked into. The last time I saw him, he was jumping up to the window of
the bus, being silly. He blew me a kiss and I blew him one back.’
Bradley was never to return to the
hostel. Instead, less than two hours later, a medic knocked on Hayley’s
door. ‘I knew right away something was wrong,’ she says.
‘My heart lurched into my stomach.’
What happened next unfolded in a
blur: Bradley was dead, killed alongside the pilot, three other tourists
and their tandem partners in a fireball that had engulfed the aircraft
shortly after take off when it nosedived 400ft to the ground.
‘I couldn’t believe that the man I
had kissed just a short while earlier was now dead. It was the worst
moment of my life,’ says Hayley.
As a bewildered Hayley struggled to digest the news, back in Farnborough, the Cokers awoke to a banging at the door around 5am.
Chris recalls: ‘Two police officers
said they were very sorry, but Bradley had been killed in a plane crash.
You think: “It can’t be true, it doesn’t make sense.”’
The Cokers initially took comfort from the fact Bradley seemed to have been the victim of a cruel but random twist of fate.
Then, six days after he died, they
learned the New Zealand authorities had issued a directive ordering that
any similar plane should carry no more than six passengers, as opposed
to the eight on board when Bradley died.
‘I felt physically sick,’ says Kathy.
‘Because in that moment what happened went from an accident to
something that could potentially have been prevented.’
This has now been confirmed by the
official report by New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation
Commission, whose findings make grim reading.
The plane, a converted crop-sprayer
bought by SkyDive NZ just three months before it crashed, had undertaken
78 flights with no proper safety checks. The flight manual — akin to a
car logbook, and containing vital details such as the load it could
carry — had not been updated.
The New Zealand Civil Aviation
Authority, meanwhile, had certified the aircraft’s new usage without
inspecting it. Eyewitness accounts report that the plane took off almost
vertically, such was the weight in the back.
‘No one was strapped in and people
were sitting in the wrong place, meaning the plane could not execute a
proper take-off,’ says Chris. ‘It didn’t stand a chance.’
Two of the tandem skydivers had been
smoking cannabis prior to boarding the flight. ‘We were stunned to read
that. They were directly responsible for somebody’s life. It was a
dereliction of duty.’
In love: Bradley and Hayley pose at a hot spring in Taupo a short time before his doomed skydive
Anger: Bradley’s parents want New Zealand to tighten regulations for providers of outdoor adventure sports
These findings are grim enough, but
as the Cokers struggled to digest the realisation that their son’s death
could have been avoided, they learned they couldn’t properly pursue the
company responsible.
‘While there’s an inquest later this year, it’s unlikely any criminal charges will be brought,’ says Chris.
‘Fundamentally, there is no real
sanction for companies there, as there is no offence of capital
manslaughter, and you can’t sue for wrongful death or negligence. So
where is the incentive for companies to behave properly?’
And with one sole accident insurance
provider across the country — one who pays out on a no-fault basis — the
Cokers received just £2,744 in compensation, the maximum allowed under
New Zealand law.
‘That sum was in exchange for my son’s life and didn’t even cover the cost of bringing his body home,’ says Chris.
‘No amount of money will bring
Bradley back, but it represented to us the utter lack of regard for the
magnitude of what we have gone through as a family.’
The Cokers have now written to John
Key, New Zealand’s prime minister, urging him to tighten regulations for
providers of outdoor adventure sports, and in the meantime hope to
highlight the risks to other parents.
‘In that way we can feel that Bradley’s death has not been in vain,’ says Kathy.
All the same, they have struggled to
navigate the painful milestones that have passed since his death: the
first Christmas, and family events that would otherwise be full of joy
but are now tinged with sadness.
Nine months ago, Elizabeth gave birth to a son, Jackson, the family’s first grandchild, while Ashley recently married.
And each time, Kathy says, they half expect Bradley to walk through the door to celebrate with them.
‘It still doesn’t feel real. Even now I think: “It can’t be true. He’ll come back”,’ she says.
‘The pain doesn’t go away, but all you can do is learn to live with it.’
To sign a petition calling for tighter safety procedures, visit facebook.com/nzsafety
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