Air Displays To Face Restrictions

[mikey4444]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34044383

Not before time as far as I am concerned. Most of those killed at the weekend weren't even attending the Airshow....just driving on a busy main road. This is hardly the first time this has happened, is it ?

[stuey]

Forget and ignore any "investigations". Gravity is the boss: what goes up must come down. No matter how well the airplane is designed; no matter how it can potentially perform in "dog-fights"; no matter how well the pilot is trained if things go amiss it comes down and causes and, not always, creates great destruction. People have posted that these planes are designed to perform like this, and the pilots are trained to fly under these conditions; however, guess what? Sometimes, maybe not often, things go terribly wrong. Investigations will most assuredly declare that "Lessons will be learned". Ban these performances or not? Probably not: after a few weeks this incident will be forgotten by most of us.

[retrocop]

273SJ
"What certain people?"

These certain people.


//Gromit
There is a hood argument that these air displays should be banned on public safety grounds.

Hardly a week goes by in the summer months without some fatally or other at air shows.
Terrible wadte of life, just to satiate the public thirst. Same with Formulae 1.//

[andy-hughes]

237SJ -"I don`t think anyone wants these shows banned but you have to ask yourself "Is my entertainment worth 11 peoples` lives"? I don`t think it is."

That statement does not bear analysis in my view.

The deaths are a tragic by-product of the entertainment - not an integral part of it.

Using your argument, you could ask if your car trip to the seaside was worth it in view of the fatalities on Britain's roads yesterday.

[sunny-dave]

Without wishing to diminish in any way the shocking nature of this crash - can we please get things into a bit of perspective.

These are the first/only *public* fatalities caused by a UK Airshow since 1952 - that's 63 years. That's a pretty good safety record, by any standards.

There have been other accidents and fatalities, but all of these have been willing participants in the flying displays - who all knew and accepted the risks they were taking.

In comparison ... over 20,000 people have died in road accidents in the UK in last 10 years.

[retrocop]

sunny-dave
I totally agree. I am not the one suggesting air pageants be banned. I support them.
I was only replying and supplying a link to an answer.

[sunny-dave]

retro - I understood your post - mine was a general comment - not aimed at anyone in particular, just trying to reduce the "ban them all" hysteria by supplying some facts ...

[retrocop]

Fair enough.

[Retrochic]

Well for what its worth (probably not much) I believe the right thing to do is restrict air displays to those places where the display can be done over the sea - Sunderland Air Show is a good example where the 'stunts' are done over the sea and people watch from the beach. The only time I've been to an airshow was a private on at an RAF base and to be honest it scared me to death and nearly blew my ears out. Not for me but some people love it and so they should not be banned, just restricted to coastal areas.

[Baldric]

Like Shoreham?

[Retrochic]

Baldric -this is a valid point -why was the 'stunt' not been done over the sea at Shoreham? Because the audience was at the airfield which is further inland and the audience apparently likes to see the stunts being done literally overhead. At Sunderland the audience are on the beach

http://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarchive/cf005c4699eb6055ac5df839b326870bd1a3e17a.jpg