Red Arrows to fly at festival
ORGANISERS of the 14th Lowestoft Seafront Air Festival told of their relief yesterday after their “top of the bill” display, the Royal Air Force Red Arrows, were cleared to fly again after being grounded for several days.
ORGANISERS of the 14th Lowestoft Seafront Air Festival told of their relief yesterday after their “top of the bill” display, the Royal Air Force Red Arrows, were cleared to fly again after being grounded for several days.
The Red Arrows are due to appear on both days of the Lowestoft airshow next week, closing the flying programme on Thursday and opening Friday's displays.
All the RAF's Hawk jet trainers, including the aircraft flown by the Red Arrows, were grounded last week after a fault was found with the plane's ejector seat.
Cracks in the ejector seats were spotted by engineers during routine inspections of the aircraft at RAF Valley at Anglesey where most of the �5m Hawks are based.
For “safety reasons” the Ministry of Defence made the decision to ground all Hawks which could potentially be suffering the same fault.
A MoD spokesman said: “Safety of our air crews is of paramount importance.”
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The Red Arrows, who are in
the middle of a busy summer
display season, were inspected as a matter of urgency and were finally given the all-clear on Wednesday morning.
Air Festival spokesman Barry Hartley said: “It has been an anxious few days following the disappointing news that the Red Arrows had been grounded and we are relieved and delighted that they will now be with us again and headlining next week's exciting airshow.”
Next week's programme remains subject to weather and availability, but other highlights include the world's only airworthy Avro Vulcan bomber, the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and Grace Spitfire - commemorating the 70th
anniversary of the Battle of Britain - the six-strong Aerostars, the four-aircraft Blades, the Breitling wingwalkers and the Red Bull Matadors.
Flying starts at about noon on Thursday and 12.30pm on Friday.
