Whatever the cause of this accident the fact is that this was a well maintained aircraft flown by a very experienced, skilled and careful pilot (who I really hope makes a complete recovery) and such accidents, though fairly uncommon, will always happen at airshows from time to time. That's in the nature of aerobatic flying and pilots accept that risk which is greater than normal flight operations. The emphasis has therefore quite properly been on minimising the risk to spectators as these are obviously the major at-risk group. Following the Shoreham accident more attention will now have to be given to the safety of people beyond the actual airshow and that must mean reviewing the locations of airshows along with the types of aircraft involved.
Though I'm sure it's absolutely not how they're really feeling I'm afraid that the interview with John Turner on Today this morning did make the British Air Display Association appear rather complacent. "We have to wait for the enguiry to report" and "we'll review the rules with the CAA in due course." We don't want a knee-jerk reaction such as banning all on-shore displays but we do know what happened on the A27 even if not why it happened and I think the public will expect an immediate review of existing airshows.
You can never remove risk entirely but you can identify and minimise areas of potential hazard. Though not a significant risk for normal arrivals and departures I'm afraid the proximity of the A27 to a relatively small aerodrome and its position relative to the display line does look like a hazard that wouldn't apply to most others used for airshows.
Last edited by 150commuter; 24th Aug 2015 at 13:29.