Some Disturbed By The Act So Soon After Tragedy At Shoreham Air Show

It’s one of the staples of a warbird display at an airshow. At the Clacton Air Show in England, the B-17 Sally B simulated an engine fire. A smoke canister installed for that purpose sent smoke pouring from one of the wings while flying over the water at Clacton.

The U.K. newspaper The Daily Mail reports that even though the Sally B is well known on the airshow circuit, some in the audience felt the simulated engine fire was inappropriate only a week after a Hawker Hunter went down at the Shoreham Air Show, resulting in the fatal injury of 11 people on the ground.

An announcer warned the spectators that there would be smoke at the end of the routine, but that it was part of the demonstration. One person at the show, 50-year-old Alexander Metselaar, who was at Shoreham last week, said “they obviously don’t care about people’s emotions.”

A second witness said they thought the plane was going to crash, and that that part of the routine was “in incredibly poor taste,” according to the paper.

The Sally B had been scheduled to perform at Shoreham last week, but the show was cancelled after the Hawker Hunter went down. She has been owned by businessman Ted White since 1975, and has been performing at U.K. airshows for 39 years. She is the last airworthy B-17 in Europe.

(Sally B image from file)

FMI:  www.sallyb.org.uk