Having just seen the Harrier go down in Lowestoft, and having been a Farnborough last Saturday, I have to say that all this talk of us being safer is a bit of a misnomer.
The Harrier at Farnborough, as is customary, did its "bow" to the crowd. It was much closer to the crowd than any of the other aircraft and was probably the crowd side of the centre line. If it had engine failure at that point, injuries would almost certainly have resulted from the explosion of the small amount of fuel and parts flying off everywhere.
We were just lucky that the Lowestoft incident happened at sea.
I don't go to airshows much now as they are quite boring, no big planes like the Vulcan, aircraft doing the same thing quite some distance away. We all accept risk is part of life and if you go to an airshow (or a motor race) you have to accpet there is a small chance something might land on you. The only alternative is to watch it live on TV.. wouldn't that be fun