Guest Commentary Says Shoreham May Be A Turning Point For The Airshow Industry In The U.K.

In a piece for the Royal Aeronautical Society posted to their "Insight" blog, commentator Tim Robinson says that the accident last year at Shoreham and the resulting rift between the U.K. CAA and the airshow industry may be a turning point for airshows in that country.

Robinson draws a distinction between the Shoreham accident and a 1952 crash of a DH110 at Farnborough as well as the 2014 accident at Reno where several spectators were fatally injured when a P-51 went down during a race. The Shoreham accident, he says, "involved people outside the air display minding their own business. There is thus a legal difference between the informed and accepted risks of the pilot, air show spectators who pay to get in to see the display and nearby passers-by who might be injured or killed in an accident."

He said that the CAAs ban on high-energy maneuvers by classic military aircraft was justified in the wake of the accident, but the proposed massive increases in fees for air displays came as a major shock to many organizers who had already set their budgets for their 2016 shows.

Robinson writes that it is feared that shows which are cancelled this year due to the fees may never return. And many in the industry feel that the increased fees will do nothing to increase safety or prevent another accident such as the one that occurred at Shoreham last year.

Robinson writes that he hopes a compromise can be reached between the CAA and the airshow industry in the U.K., not only for the pilots and organizers, but "for those young people of tomorrow who, having been taken to their local air show for the first time, get bitten by the aviation bug."

(Image from file)

FMI: Full Article