Good Morning America: "Airshows a National Pastime"

[Eric Friedebach]

From today's ICAS Fast Facts:

Good Morning America declares, "Air Shows are now a National Pastime"

Following the Scott Manning crash during a practice session in Ottawa, Canada on June 16 and the collision of airplanes in Peru, IL four hours before an air show was scheduled to begin, ABC News decided to do a story on air shows. The question that the feature focused on was, "How Safe Are Air Shows?" The piece opens with Good Morning America's (GMA) anchor saying that "18 million people will make their ways to air shows this year to be thrilled by top-gun pilots pushing their aircraft to their acrobatic limits." ABC's Dan Harris led the story by saying, "Air Shows have become nearly as popular as Major League Baseball - they are now a right-of-summer, a National pastime." The footage shows the wreckage at Peru, IL but Harris clarifies that "Sunday's accident did not involve actual performance pilots." He continues that, "accidents are statistically rare however, about four a year - 1/3 the number fifteen years ago." ABC aviation consultant John Nance lends positive credibility by saying that, "there is a very small incidence when you consider the number of air shows and the number of participants - it has been getting better progressively." While the segment showed the horrible crash in Ramstein, Germany and a 2004 crash in California, Harris clarified that, "the FAA has been overseeing U.S. air shows for just over 50 years now and according to them, not a single spectator has died here during that time period. This can be traced to stricter safety rules." The conclusion for viewers of the feature was, "there is a risk. . . but it is really rare."

[Bill Greenwood]

In my opinion based on 2 decades plus of airshows as a fan and as of a pilot, there are lots of rules that are mostly red tape or make little practical sense. But the one airshow regulation that protects the crowd is the showline or deadline. It should be a logical point like a runway edge or at least be well marked, with 500' for flybys and 1000' for acro (piston) and it needs to be enforced. I've seen many times military jets ignore the line, and I think it is safer not to have flyovers of the crowd even at 1000'. Has the record really been no fatalities, I thought there was a T-34 midair that hit spectators in California around 10 years ago? I think we'd be safer without the current practice of headon passes as done at some shows. Thanks, Bill Greenwood