Danny
Your sample size for airshow fatalities is just too small. When it is that small then 'being lucky' skews the stats even more. Take the Car Fest accident, if the Gnat had come down on a surrounding campsite or road then we would probably not be having this discussion. With so few aircraft (fortunately) "coming a cropper" each year then the chances of someone losing their life is always going to be low, however, with the ever increasing population, traffic/housing densities and bigger events with ad hoc campsites or other outdoor activities to please the masses, then the likelihood of a further occurrence increases. So 'being lucky' is no longer applicable and hence I believe that the CAA have done the right thing.
I feel in part culpable because I displayed at Shoreham over 10 years ago and thought it was tight then. How many other aircrew have thought about this or other venues? However, now that the question of risk management of non-spectator areas is being asked, then I hope we will not see anything like this again for a very long time.
LJ