Originally Posted by funfly
Airshow accidents could be greatly reduced if the pilots displaying performed no aerobatics that had any risk i.e. used the display to 'display' rather than show off.
Few people watching appreciate the difficulty levels of some of the aerobatic manoeuvres thus they are best avoided.
But for "any risk" I couldn't agree more. The answer does not lie in restricting Hunters and the like to mere flybys at airshows. A practical solution is simply to ban downward vertical manoeuvres with low pull-outs (in high-inertia jets) and the crowd won't even notice. Watching a nicely executed half-cuban, with one or two aileron rolls in the downline, is far nicer than staring into the hole of a doughnut ... and it is much safer.