What is the formation made of? Spitfire and Hurricane escorting the Lancaster? Too bad they are not allowed to fly over downtown London. Sometimes, people in the big cities need to be reminded how they are made safe by others, scattered around the country… A bit like how they are fed by farmers.
I only have a FB link for today's flight formation https://www.facebook.com/399537927300632/posts/1093563574564727/
But very similar in that these are old aircraft that may fail. Flights over London are a risky proposition, which is is why they are not happening.
Have you seen some of the poorly maintained aircraft that fly over London daily? Now that Aeroflot are banned I suppose that removes a few. BBMF aircraft are maintained by a hand picked team of RAF technicians to within an inch of their (old) lives.
Point taken Ricky, but the risks remain and unless I'm mistaken that is the reason why the flights are not passing over Buck House as we speak...
There obviously are risks associated with flying old WW2 warbirds. But as mentioned above, BBMF aircraft are professionally operated and maintained by active duty RAF air and ground crews, which does limit the risk when flying a straight horizontal pass. When we fly above Paris for the 14th of July, the Seine river is the primary emergency land/crash that is briefed by all aircrews. Bridges would be fatal, obviously, but that would prevent a crash on populated areas and buildings. The Thames could be used in the same way.
Thank God he was able to maneuver into a bridgeless portion of the river. What an extraordinary emergency landing!
Here in the UK military 'planes do fly over London for special occasions and displays. Its seemingly just the old ones that appear to be considered too higher risk.
Agreed, this crash landing will always stick with me impressive flying skills, if the stories are true not a single pilot has been able to land a simulation of this incident. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Airlines_Flight_232
