On Saturday I boarded the Valley Express coach at Worthing with around 15 other Charlton fans and en route to the various pick up points on the way to The Valley. The departure pick up point is on the road leading to the home of Worthing United football Club. We had arranged for the coach to leave a little earlier than usual due to the airshow at Shoreham. Heavy traffic as we crawled along the A27, included was a 10 minute crawl through the traffic lights turn off for the airport. This would have been around 11.45. There were a couple of biplanes doing their loops which we enjoyed watching during tha crawl. The shock of hearing about the accident at the exact spot we had been sitting just 90 minutes before it happened, sent a shudder through me.
Despite being nowhere near at the actual time of the impact I couldn't stop thinking 'what if.' The joy of the win on Saturday was magnificent but when we boarded the coach home and heard the road was closed and gathered more news about the tragedy the atmosphere became rather subdued as people perhaps realised we 'could' just have been there at the wrong time ouselves.
We eventually got back to Worthing and found out later that 2 of Worthing United's young players would never again be driving up that same road to play for them. My thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragedy and I hope nothing like this ever happens again. RIP
Now there's been upto 20, what if there's another 20 over the next 10 years? Is that an amount you'd be happy with for the sake of having to go to the beach instead of an airfield to watch a aeroplane do a loop the loop?
In 2011 a Red Arrow crashed into a field after performing above the sea - according to some people on here, he could have easily hit a road or a school or a circus and killed dozens of people so again no guarantee having them over the sea would prevent this from happening again.
The regulators have already limited 'vintage' aircraft to fly-pasts only pending the investigation so there is still no indication if the plane's age was a factor in the crash. Realistically speaking only a complete ban on all air shows will guarantee no air show related deaths, but there will still be deaths caused by other forms of civil/recreational aviation. I bet quite a lot of people here did not object to the Spitfires flying over urban areas and they are definitely vintage aircraft, guess we will need to put a stop to that as well at this rate.
Before this incident, there had been 0 deaths as a result of uk airshows since 1952...
That can't be right as the pilot at car fest died and that's 1 person dead, and I thought the Red arrow pilot at Bournemouth died when he crashed the other year
Before this incident, there had been 0 deaths as a result of uk airshows since 1952...
That can't be right as the pilot at car fest died and that's 1 person dead, and I thought the Red arrow pilot at Bournemouth died when he crashed the other year
That statistic refers to members of the public and is widely reported, so I assume it is correct.
So, lets say that a vinatge car was to crash at high speed into a crowd of people standing at the bus stop, do we ban vintage cars on the road? ( edited due to spelling mistake )
So, lets say that a vinatge car was to crash at high speed into a crowd of people standing at the bus stop, do we bad vintage cars on the road?
Yes, if no vintage cars had ever been made, they never would have hurt modern day people. How many more people need to be killed in the name of Austin, Morris and Triumph?
Right okay then, my point all along from the start has been for any aeroplane to fly wherever it wants, BUT if the pilot wants to do stunts go and do it over the water
Sadly I don't think that there will ever be another show at Shoreham, though shows at airfields will continue. The majority of airfields are in areas less densely populated, for example Fairford, Duxford, Shuttleworth, East Kirby
The new "rules" on vintage jets won't really change much apart from them not being able to do "stunts" over land. For example Vulcan to the Sky posted last night that they do not expect 558's routine performance to change. The rules don't affect Warbirds such as Spitfires, Hurricanes, Mustangs etc.
Having been in a few air show pilots briefings I know that the airfield layout is explained and also areas where pilots should avoid overflying. For example at North Weald they were told not to overfly a farm where cows were heavily pregnant. Visual markers were pointed out and maps were marked.
It's now down to the AAIB to go through the wreckage and try to piece together exactly what happened, I'm guessing that they are hoping Andy Hill pulls through as he will almost certainly know what went wrong.
Seen the Ramstein crash mentioned, that was in Germany and they had very different rules to the UK at that time, the manoeuvre that killed so many was banned in the UK.
Have spoken to a few people who were there and they are in shock, as suggested earlier, they are seeking some help to manage their shock and I would advise anyone affected to do the same.
I still cannot work out though why the manoeuvre was parallel to the road, they would have been told not to perform anything over this area.
Good to see the Sussex community coming together to support all the victims of this tragedy. If you want to donate here is the link.
^ yeah are are right. where do we stop. Shall we ban the Moto GP and the F1?
No, coz they don't pose an obvious risk to members of the public like aerobatics can
So a bouncing nose cone simular to that, that killed Justin Wilson or a loose wheel could never bounce over the fence and kill people watching from the stands? You see in almost every F1 race parts fly off of a car and land on the ground. You see more danger to the crowd at F1 in one race than you will do in twenty years at a airshow.
^ yeah are are right. where do we stop. Shall we ban the Moto GP and the F1?
No, coz they don't pose an obvious risk to members of the public like aerobatics can
Motor racing poses much more of a risk to the public than aerobatics, see the 1955 Lemans disaster when 83 died and 120 were injured. All motor racing tickets have 'motor racing is dangerous' and other warnings printed on them, apparently this covers the organisers should a car or bike cartwheel into the crowd.
Human beings are made to take risks, I love bike racing and numerous times Ive seen bikes cartwheel over the safety fences, with the spectators legging it out of the way, its part and parcel of it. At the Isle of Man TT (the greatest motor sport) the bikes hurtle past spectators at no more then 3 foot away in places at 200mph, its a rush and should never be curtailed.....no matter what the risks are.
What risks does motor racing pose to people who are not racers, not employees at the track, not spectators, just ordinary people going about their daily business nearby?
Please note again, of the people killed in the Shoreham air disaster, zero were attending or participating in the show. None of them had tickets with warnings printed on them.
Comments
Despite being nowhere near at the actual time of the impact I couldn't stop thinking 'what if.' The joy of the win on Saturday was magnificent but when we boarded the coach home and heard the road was closed and gathered more news about the tragedy the atmosphere became rather subdued as people perhaps realised we 'could' just have been there at the wrong time ouselves.
We eventually got back to Worthing and found out later that 2 of Worthing United's young players would never again be driving up that same road to play for them. My thoughts are with everyone affected by this tragedy and I hope nothing like this ever happens again. RIP
People aboard died.
The regulators have already limited 'vintage' aircraft to fly-pasts only pending the investigation so there is still no indication if the plane's age was a factor in the crash. Realistically speaking only a complete ban on all air shows will guarantee no air show related deaths, but there will still be deaths caused by other forms of civil/recreational aviation. I bet quite a lot of people here did not object to the Spitfires flying over urban areas and they are definitely vintage aircraft, guess we will need to put a stop to that as well at this rate.
That can't be right as the pilot at car fest died and that's 1 person dead, and I thought the Red arrow pilot at Bournemouth died when he crashed the other year
Then the statement above isn't right, it should say 0 deaths to anyone outside the plane
There are others besides the one I mentioned previously.
No.
The new "rules" on vintage jets won't really change much apart from them not being able to do "stunts" over land. For example Vulcan to the Sky posted last night that they do not expect 558's routine performance to change. The rules don't affect Warbirds such as Spitfires, Hurricanes, Mustangs etc.
Having been in a few air show pilots briefings I know that the airfield layout is explained and also areas where pilots should avoid overflying. For example at North Weald they were told not to overfly a farm where cows were heavily pregnant. Visual markers were pointed out and maps were marked.
It's now down to the AAIB to go through the wreckage and try to piece together exactly what happened, I'm guessing that they are hoping Andy Hill pulls through as he will almost certainly know what went wrong.
Seen the Ramstein crash mentioned, that was in Germany and they had very different rules to the UK at that time, the manoeuvre that killed so many was banned in the UK.
Have spoken to a few people who were there and they are in shock, as suggested earlier, they are seeking some help to manage their shock and I would advise anyone affected to do the same.
I still cannot work out though why the manoeuvre was parallel to the road, they would have been told not to perform anything over this area.
Good to see the Sussex community coming together to support all the victims of this tragedy. If you want to donate here is the link.
https://www.justgiving.com/sussexgiving
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1955_Le_Mans_disaster
Human beings are made to take risks, I love bike racing and numerous times Ive seen bikes cartwheel over the safety fences, with the spectators legging it out of the way, its part and parcel of it. At the Isle of Man TT (the greatest motor sport) the bikes hurtle past spectators at no more then 3 foot away in places at 200mph, its a rush and should never be curtailed.....no matter what the risks are.
Please note again, of the people killed in the Shoreham air disaster, zero were attending or participating in the show. None of them had tickets with warnings printed on them.