Courtney Mil
I've resisted posting on this thread for as long as I can. Once again there has been a disaster, a crash, people have died. And once again dozens of experts who have been members here for many years and that have found the need to contribute, maybe, a handful of posts over those years, suddenly pitch up with a whole wealth of knowledge and opinion. You are, of course, very welcome.
I have just spent the last hour catching up on this afternoon's posts here and, as usual in these circumstances, too many people have crawled out of the woodwork to draw conclusions (and, worse, express them in public) and translate those opinions into table-thumping demands to ban displays, question the quals, currency and capability of display pilots, cite legal precedent, conduct their own risk assessment of the site and its suitability. Well done, no argument with your reason.
But before you all sound off, why not wait a few days to consider the facts of this particular case, show some respect for those involved (and that does mean just adding a statement of respect to those affected) and wait a short while for, at very least, a preliminary statement from the AAIB and the other services involved.
At the moment, this is about a disastrous air accident. If you really want to start discussing the future of air shows, displays and the manoeuvres authorised, the safety regulations, suitability of sites, the litigation aspects and the quals and supervision of the pilots, why don't you pipe up with your views and start threads about these issues? Why do you need to wait until such a tragic moment to jump on your high horses and drag the thread away from this, one accident to your (in some cases, clearly, long-held) personal soap-boxes about air displays - or have you simply suddenly come to these conclusion?
Last point. Whoever's comment it was about display pilots regularly missing or ignoring gates, if you know that for a fact, you should have acted on it years ago. If you don't know it for a fact, don't state it in public as if it is.
Out.
For those who didn't read it the first time.