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Old 22nd Aug 2015, 17:31
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Arcanum
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: Cambridge
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However, to those calling for displays to be cancelled are you going to stop driving your cars? because lots of innocent people are killed and injured by cars by people making journeys in them for pleasure.
Most of life in the western world is about minimising and balancing risk. By way of examples, a 70MPH motorway speed limit is set to balance reasonable progress against the risk of injury from an accident at that speed. However, it's up to you whether you travel at night in a rainstorm or wait until the weather is better in the day. You can attend a motor race which has crash barriers and fences, but you get to chose where you stand and the back of your admission ticket will say there is risk of injury or death. Similarly, if you attend an airshow the organisers will have a display line and the pilots should have display clearance, but you are assuming some personal risk. In the UK, in most scenarios, you get to chose the level of risk you assume in an already regulated environment.

It's fair to say that while the people out on their bikes or driving their cars assumed some risk of a traffic accident, they probably would not think it was acceptable for an aircraft flying for fun in an airshow was going to make this day their last. I doubt their families do either.

Whether you like it or not, when there are a few significant instances of aircraft accidents like this it enters the public consciousness and society will ask if airshows with private fast jets are an acceptable risk. I suspect the answer will soon be no and it should be left to the professionals. Not, sadly, that the professionals are infallible either. Which is unfortunate for those of us who want to see classic aircraft like Gnats and Hunters flying, but that's the way it is.

Indeed, even if officialdom doesn't step in, it wouldn't surprise me if there are legal & insurance ramifications from this incident which makes private display flying prohibitively expensive in the future.

I say all this as someone who had the incredibly good fortune to spend just under 1-hour in WV372 almost 15-years ago when it was part of Delta jets. It was my first and likely only time in a fast-jet and I will always remember the experience. Such a shame that the aircraft is no more. Far more of a tragedy for all of the people and families who have been caught up in this incident.
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