Originally Posted by
RetiredF4
We discussed, why the crew even went considerably below that planned altitude and came up with the suggestion, that it might not have been the intention of the crew, but happened due to the perspective of the small little airfield.
Not even that. As far as I can tell from the report, AF signed off on the profile provided that the flypast was over the paved strip (which had no obstructions in the run-off area) and the crew were comfortable with the profile. The briefing materials provided were inadequate - specifically the photocopies of the airfield charts provided to the crew effectively deleted the graphics indicating the trees.
In the event, the crew spotted the airfield late, and noticed that the spectators were lined up on the grass strip, not the paved strip on which they had been briefed. At this point the crew would have been well within their rights to abort the flypast altogether, and press on to the sightseeing trip over the Pyrenees which made up the latter part of their flightplan. Instead, the PIC elected to perform an unauthorised approach maneouvre to match the grass strip, even though they were considerably high and fast to do so.