Effluent Man #196
I think there's a contrast. Commercial flying may or may not be an essential part of life, but it goes on all day every day, with far more movements even in one day than at an air show (a British one anyway).
Many airports have major roads just ourside the fence. 20-odd years ago a Citation went off the end of Southampton's runway 20 and onto the M27. It was very early morning, traffic was light and luckily no-one was killed. It could have been in the rush hour. Then more recently a 777 with fuel starvation just made it over the A30 and onto the undershoot of 27L at Heathrow. Again, luckily, no-one died. It seems to me that we've got away with operating heavy aircraft at low levels over major roads and densely populated areas for so many years more by luck than by judgement. I'm sure the sky-gods here will say that everything is under control and nothing can possibly go wrong - I just hope that that holds true in the future.