Cry “Harassment” and Muzzle the Dogs of “Wow!”
The Red Arrows, officially, the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team, is it to the subjects of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain what the Blue Angels, Thunderbirds, and Las Vegas are to Americans—an embodiment of all that is glorious, risky, and thrilling in the national consciousness.
The badge of the Red Arrows—which depicts the ensemble’s trademark diamond nine formation—is underscored with the motto Éclat, a French word meaning "brilliance" or "excellence.”
Regrettably, the Red Arrows’ characteristic brilliance has been sullied of late by a series of scandals and internal imbroglios more odeur affreuse than Éclat. Sources close to the team state the group has fallen into a deplorable state of mutual loathing, forced expulsions, and bitter resignations.
The trouble allegedly began in Greece, during a four-week training endeavor dubbed Exercise Springhawk, where an off-hours, late-night, alcohol-fueled incident saw one of the Red Arrows pilots sent home in disgrace. The incident compelled squadron-leader Nick Critchell to confront team leader Tom Bould over what the former called a “toxic culture” within the group of youngish pilots. Shortly thereafter, Critchell is said to have resigned in disgust from an assignment for which most RAF pilots would trade their eye-teeth.
Some days later, flight lieutenant Will Cambridge was suspended from the team after a fellow-pilot made a harsh and protracted noise about Cambridge having had an alleged affair with a junior trainee pilot.
The Red Arrows pilots remaining in the wake of Critchell’s and Cambridge’s departures have reportedly since existed in varying states of reciprocal disdain.
The ongoing enmity and petty disputes by which it was engendered waxed spectacularly public when British tabloids got wind of the RAF having launched an official investigation into what the service called unacceptable behaviour by several Red Arrows pilots.
A former British military aviator called the ongoing hostilities “a disaster for the RAF,” and posited, “The Red Arrows are their [the RAF’s] public face and the public love them, but they have no idea what is going on behind the scenes. That’s why the RAF have tried so hard to keep a lid on this."
Establishing who or what is to blame for the row is apt to prove tricky for RAF investigators insomuch as factions within the Red Arrows have reportedly offered varying versions of alleged events, and have refrained, thus far, from speaking publicly about the team’s internal dynamic.
Today’s RAF is hobbled by political correctness. The organization’s own (female) head of recruitment resigned recently over a de facto recruitment freeze on white men in favor of women and ethnic minority candidates, which has allegedly been imposed for purpose of meeting diversity quotas.
Against such a backdrop, the Red Arrows’ culture of heavy drinking and philandering has become controversial. The ongoing ideological dispute appears to have engendered acrimony among the Red Devils, some of whom construe their colleagues’ behavior unprofessional.
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