Gnat crash at oulton park

[JJC]

To try and answer your question. Obviously, distance is time, and is therefore safer for pilots and spectators. Altitude combined with speed is also safety. Aircraft displaying will frequently fly beyond the field, of course. To minimise risk to people outside, there must [in the CAA's view, I guess,] be more height and less steep turns to safeguard the public [outside the airfield] Pulling hard 'g' through a 90deg bank is not as safe as 45 deg. Therefore, giving everybody more margin HAS to be a good idea. Another accident outside the airfield will not be tolerated by Joe Public, and, post Shoreham, the CAA HAS to be seen to be doing something to make it safer. We are stuck with this, whether we like it or not.
As an aside, I have felt at many shows, more in the U.S perhaps than here, that there is potential for a very serious accident involving the crowd, merely by having an undercarriage collapse on the crowd side of the aircraft, which makes it very difficult for directional control to be maintained. I have seen it happen, but it stopped just short of the spectators. Lucky.
JJC Sorry. Hadn't read your edit. Certainly at Oshkosh some very high performance aircraft land parallel and close to the crowd.

I don't disagree with you regarding the height of aeros etc. Certainly that can be rationalised easily. In addition, the more stringent requirements for the pilots to have more time on type etc. are sensible moves imho.

That is true - I suppose in some respects we are lucky to have an industry left after last year. However, I think these regulations should, rightly, be challenged/criticised and debated in the open in order to tease out the best ideas from all sides. Criticism, if valid and constructive, leads to the best possible decisions moving forwards.

I see. I had imagined the Americans to be slightly more 'risky' perhaps in certain circumstances, and can understand your concern in these situations. I have not, personally, ever experienced an accident at an airshow (in 16 years of attending) so cannot comment on the effect that must have. However, I have never felt unsafe whilst watching a display in the UK either.

[KarlADrage]

The display line being pushed back is a consequence of the Bronco crash at Cotswold Airport (Kemble), where debris would have ended up amongst the crowd had it been an actual airshow and not a practice. It has nothing to do with the Shoreham crash.

[ArabJazzie]

The display line being pushed back is a consequence of the Bronco crash at Cotswold Airport (Kemble), where debris would have ended up amongst the crowd had it been an actual airshow and not a practice. It has nothing to do with the Shoreham crash.

Thing is though, the CAA has historical evidence that could push the display line at an airfield back even further.
Arabest,
Geoff.

[page_verify]

It's good to see the CAA responding - I'm sure lots of people would have complained if after an eventful display season in 2015 it just sat back and said in future it'd dot the i's and cross the t's of its existing regulations. They will have known just hours after the Gnat crash that the pilot was woefully inexperienced and that something had to change. The same for whatever was the root cause of the Shoreham incident. They can't however jump to conclusions so must do their due diligence. If word on the street is correct and the Hunters are grounded because of a lack of ejection seat OEM support then I suspect they may never leave the runway again. We shall see.