Facts :
About the aircraft
1. The A310-300 carried no passengers.
2. The pilots of the A310-300 where amonst the ones with more hours flying this aircraft in TAP Portugal, one of them being the fleet pilot chief.
3. The manouvres were well prepared in advance and trained on the A310 simulator.
About the field
4. Évora is a small field with some particular aspects. One of them is the fact that the runways is at a higher level than the apron and the other side of the runway is also lower han the rounway itself.
Comments :
a. The participation of the A310-30, the first TAP Portugal participation on the Portugal Air Show ever, happened because the A310-30 is about to leave the fleet.
b. The manouvres were planned to show the full capacity of the airplane but were never intended to put the plane, the pilots or the ublic in risk. (the plane had arrived that morning from Caracas and left soon after the show to Brasil).
c. It's natural that both the public and some spotters thought that the wing was closer to the ground than in reality because they were standing on lower groun and lost the wing tip from sight due to the terrain.
d. Photos taken from higher level, from people standing on top of refuelling truck clearly show that there was no real proximity to terrain.
I had the opportunity to speak with the pilots, latter that day ...
The one thing they should have planned better was taking in account the terrain and the fact that people were standing on lower ground, making the manouvre a little bit higher wouldn't had make a difference on showing the aircraft (and pilots= capability but wouldn't have frighten the public.