I am astonished about comments regarding people watching air shows from outside the field. This to a degree at least a free country and if people were not allowed to watch from public land then aircraft should not be allowed to fly over said land in their displays and that would be ridiculous.
Every Farnborough show me and hundreds of other locals watch from roundabouts and roads north of the field-we put up with the noise crowds and traffic so why should we not watch a bit of the show for nothing .
How would someone define such a rule anyway, Is it ok for me to park my car legally for ten minutes to watch on e display but not legal for a guy with deck chair , sarnies and scanner to spend 3 hours there.
This is a very sad case and sadly I think there is little bit of complacency about the rules and us being the best in the world etc . The rules protecting people at the show are excellent but I do wonder that a manouver like a loop with low pull out close to main road should not have been risk assessed more vigorously-these kind of accidents are not that rare within the small statistical crash population. Similarly at FNB displaying aircraft cannot fly over the crowd but they can and do fly over the town but in fairness most manouvering is very much done over the runway away from and at right angles to the crowd line .
I love aircraft an airshows and this was a tragedy but to 'blame' people who had just come along on a bike to lean against a fence to watch for free for half and hour for being caught up in this is too much in my view
PB