Red Arrows no show fails to dampen festival fun

Red Arrows no show fails to dampen festival fun

12 August 2015

TENS of thousands of people lined the seafront in Newcastle on Saturday for this year’s Festival of Flight.

The bad weather of the previous few days gave way to a bright, sunny day as the event was once again confirmed as Newry Mourne and Down Council’s largest tourist event of the year.

There was disappointment when the headline act, the Red Arrows, were unable to appear due to technical issues. Several other planes also pulled out at the last minute including the giant Catalina flying boat (oil leak), the Hurricane (technical issues) and the Irish Historic Flight (high winds in Dublin). The Lancaster bomber had suffered an engine fire several months ago and had been withdrawn weeks earlier.

However, many other planes did take to the skies over Newcastle with two — the Typhoon and the Pitts Special — stealing the show for different reasons.

The Typhoon, or Eurofighter, has appeared four times at the Festival of Flight but Saturday’s display was widely acknowledged as the most impressive. Raw power mixed with expert handling had the huge crowd along the 1.7 mile promenade applauding as the plane skirted around the side of the Mournes on its way back to England.

The Pitts Special, a brightly coloured biplane piloted by airline pilot, Rich Goodwin, put on an outstanding display of breathtaking aerobatics, twisting and turning and performing seemingly impossible manoeuvres.

The appearance of the world’s only flying Blenheim bomber, from World War Two, was also well received by the 80,000-strong crowd, as was the Irish Coastguard helicopter, Rescue 116, which performed a winching display with Newcastle lifeboat.

The event was well underway when news began to filter through that the Red Arrows had been forced to pull out of the event.

A statement issued afterwards by the Red Arrows non-flying leader, squadron leader Mike Ling, explained that training issues and technical problems led to the cancellation of the Newcastle display.

He said the nine pilots returned from 10-days of mandatory leave last week and before they could perform before the public they had to perform a training display. Two training flights were planned for Friday but technical problems with the aircraft led to these being cancelled.

A practice display was rescheduled for Saturday morning but despite the engineers working through the night, two planes were unserviceable. The planes were back in service by noon and they performed a fly past at Trent Bridge cricket ground, in Nottingham, to mark England winning the Ashes before returning to their base at RAF Scampton for their training flight.

On their way to Scampton one of the planes development a radio malfunction which meant the nine-plane training flight could not take place. At this stage it was decided to cancel the display.

“No one is more disappointed and frustrated than us, the whole of the team, when we have to cancel planned events for whatever reason,” said Mr Ling.

“In my seven years of experience with the Red Arrows this has been one of the most challenging weekends I’ve seen. It goes without saying that we do not take any unnecessary risks, with the safety of all concerned our number one priority,” he added.

Newry Mourne and Down chairwoman, Naomi Bailie, paid tribute to the emergency and voluntary services who assisted in the planning the delivery of the Festival of Flight.

“Newry, Mourne and Down District Council also pays tribute to the efforts of the Newcastle Chamber and many independent businesses across the Newry, Mourne and Down area who have contributed financially and ‘in kind’,” she said. 

“It was disappointing that the Red Arrows and Lancaster were unable to perform due to technical difficulties which were out of our control however the many other air crafts on display proved popular with the thousands of spectators on the ground,” she added.