AirshowStuff Forums

The Patrouille Suisse performed a flyby at the wrong event this past weekend, missing their mark by about 6 km. Keep in mind their F-5's do not have GPS to assist it with navigation. The lead pilot visually picked out what he thought was the right festival and directed the formation towards it. The commander issued an apology for the error. Evidently, the flyover was not rehearsed.

https://theaviationist.com/2019/07/07/s ... ong-place/

https://www-usnews-com.cdn.ampproject.o ... rong-place

Now I can't remember how much of this is public knowledge, so I'll be suitable vague, but I was at a show last month where an RAF aircraft was due to do some flypasts. But again, without GPS, the crew picked out another point a few miles away that looked vaguely similar and flew round that instead. In both cases it was just a flypast, rather than a display, so no rehearsal. I remember there was an incident a few years back with a B-52 that did the exact same thing when the crew missed Farnborough having lined up on Blackbushe Airfield by mistake.

Given the sheer quantity of flyovers the big jet teams do during their normal transit flights - often over small venues and sometimes unannounced - I'm sure there have been many cases similar to this one too over the years.

Apparently a B 52 flew over Spokan International airport before he realized his mistake and then flew over Fairchild AFB.

I can confirm that this did indeed happen. We could see it all unfold, in the distance, from the show. Was surprised they made there way around to do the flypast at Fairchild after the "missed approach".

101voodoo wrote: ↑Tue Jul 09, 2019 10:40 pm Apparently a B 52 flew over Spokan International airport before he realized his mistake and then flew over Fairchild AFB.