Safety reassurance for Scottish Airshow in wake of Shoreham tragedy

The Scottish Airshow will go ahead as planned in two weeks' time and will not be affected by the Shoreham tragedy, a director of the event has confirmed.

A Hawker Hunter jet crashed on to a road during the Shoreham Airshow on Saturday, killing at least 11 people.

With an inquiry under way, the aviation regulator has said vintage jets will not be allowed to do major aerobatics displays over land.

The Scottish Airshow said all of its displays were "safe" and over water.

The event at Ayr and Prestwick will take place over the weekend of 5 and 6 September.

The flying event on Saturday will take place over the sea, off Low Green at Ayr. An exhibition of aircraft will be held the following day at Prestwick Airport.

Both days are expected to attract more than 50,000 spectators.

There have been calls in the aftermath of the Shoreham crash for air shows to be cancelled on safety grounds.

Doug Maclean, from The Airshow Scotland Ltd, said organisers had considered cancelling the Ayrshire event but decided to go-ahead as all the flying was done over water in a "very safe" environment.

He said they would fully consider new restrictions from the Civil Aviation Authority.

"We don't plan to have anything over land at all," he said.

"The Scottish Airshow is based in Ayr at the moment because it's a very safe and very friendly environment to operate in.

"The flying is done offshore and in controlled airspace."

But Mr Maclean said that aviation in the UK was generally "very safe".

"Every aircraft in the sky is regulated either by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) or the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

"These aircraft are maintained to meticulous standards, which applies to both a modern aeroplane and something like a Spitfire, which was built for the Second World War.

"So you could almost say that the older aeroplanes are actually safer because they do pay a lot of attention to the history of the aeroplanes and what they've been doing all of their career."

He added: "Aviation is very safe because we learn lessons from any incident that happens."

In the wake of the Shoreham Airshow tragedy, the CAA said vintage jets would be "limited to flypasts" at airshows.

This meant that "high-energy aerobatics" would not be permitted in displays over land.

A spokesman for CAA confirmed that all Hawker Hunter aircraft had been grounded until further notice.

The regulator added that it would be conducting "additional risk assessments on all forthcoming civil air displays".