- Red Arrows provide stunning finale to Air Display
- Thousands attend the annual event
- Watch our video from the display below
THE Red Arrows showed why they are the best formation flying team in the world yesterday with a spectacular display of aerial aerobatics above St Aubin’s Bay as a fitting finale to Jersey’s International Air Display 2015.
Don’t miss our 16-page souvenir supplement, free inside Friday’s JEP, featuring the best photos from this year’s display
The legendary Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team delighted Islanders as they performed sky soaring loops, complex formations and death-defying stunts, at times in such tight formation there was just six feet separating the wings tips of the Hawk T1 aircraft as they exceeded 350 miles an hour.
For those watching on the heights from Glacis Field to Mount Bingham there was the exhilarating experience of catching glimpses of the pilots in their cockpits as they flashed past, or executed low rolls a few hundred feet directly above the heads of thrill-seeking spectators.
There wasn’t a cloud in the clear blue sky as the sun shone to create the ideal conditions for a four-hour programme, watched by thousands of Islanders all around the bay from Noirmont Point to La Collette.
Many enjoyed picnics from the back of camper vans, had barbecues with family and friends in private gardens along a traffic-free Victoria Avenue or who simply relaxed on the central reservation.
Speaking after the last traces of Red Arrows trademark red, white and blue vapour trails had faded, display organiser, Deputy Mike Higgins, said he could not have wished for a better day.
‘The weather was perfect, the tide was in and there was a great selection of some excellent airplanes,’ he said.
‘It just all ran on the rails and everything went according to plan the whole day through.
It was a day that began and ended with a big heart; first executed in white smoke by two FireFlies and again, on a far greater scale as part of the Red Arrows routine.
In between the crowds were treated to displays from military aircraft from France, America, Sweden, Australia, the UK and for the last time, they witnessed a simulated air sea rescue by a Royal Navy Sea King helicopter which is being retired from service.
The RAF team also paid tribute to ‘The Few’ the 3,000 pilots who 75 years ago next week won the Battle of Britain, saving the UK from German invasion.
The 2015 routine includes a formation in the shape of a Spitfire.
There was the added treat of seeing a De Havilland Beaver amphibian aircraft land on the sea close to the site at West Park where passenger planes operated from at low tide before the Airport opened in 1937.
The Chairman of Royal Air Forces Association in Jersey, Martin Willing, who flew in the display for 18 years, was also impressed with the programme.
The association, which celebrates its 90th anniversary this year, organises the annual Wings Appeal.
It raised £30,000 in 2014 and hopes to exceed that amount this year.
‘It was a wonderful afternoon and we were looking after some wonderful people from Holiday for Heroes who are here this week,’ he said.
As the crowds dispersed from St Aubin’s Bay it wasn’t quite over; the Red Arrows were rounding off their visit with a final flourish at the Airport.
Meanwhile, later in the evening some spectators were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of a surprise, unannounced moonlight display, when two gliders covered in LED lights and trailing flares took to the skies shortly after dark.
