August 24, 2003 at 10:05 pm
This aint really commercial but I thought all of you happy souls would like to read this. I got it from BBC news
Four pilots could be prosecuted after the Red Arrows were forced to abort an air show display at the last minute over safety fears.
The world-famous RAF display team were on their final approach to the annual Yorkshire Air Show at Elvington, near York, when a series of airspace infringements made it too dangerous to fly.
A microlight aircraft, a glider and a large flock of birds all strayed into the restricted airspace in addition to one other, as yet, unspecified infringement.
The display team were forced to stand-off four miles from the airfield before cancelling their appearance altogether on safety grounds.
Furious air show organiser Ken Cothliff said the Civil Aviation Authority had been informed and the pilots of the rogue aircraft could expect to be prosecuted.
He added: “The Red Arrows can probably count on the fingers of one hand how often this has happened in the past.”
The Red Arrows, based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire, were the top attraction at the two-day event which is expected to attract more than 30,000 people.
Aircraft taking part in the displays will include the Utterly Butterly Wingwalkers, DeHavilland Sea Vixen, B-25 Mitchell Bomber, North American T-6 Harvard, Blue Eagles and the SAR Sea King.
The Red Arrows are still due to perform at the show on Monday.
By: EGNM - 30th August 2003 at 14:40
hi all – slight inaccuracies in this story.
There was indeed a microlight, a Cheokee and an unspecified twin-prop a/c which caused the trouble. The Reds had actually arrived at the display and done their opening fly by along Rwy 26 and it was at approx 08 threshold that Red1 spotted an infringement which he puleed out of formation to investigate, the other two then followed afterwards and to cut a long story short – they buggered off again! – got some excellent seats for the monday display though!
Other highlight was getting on the multiflight BBJ2 on the Sun which was again a great treat for me!
By: skycruiser - 25th August 2003 at 12:14
Those pilots must have skipped past the NOTAM’s before going flying.
By: Ren Frew - 25th August 2003 at 09:15
You can’t blame the birds !:D
By: steve rowell - 25th August 2003 at 01:06
Who were these idiots