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.
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.
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.
