{ red 4 }

[the_muppet]

Last day of the air show yesterday, and although it's been a pretty amazing festival this year, that's obviously been overshadowed by the terrible accident which happened on Saturday.


For those of you who may not have heard, one of the Red Arrows display team crashed near Bournemouth Airport directly after their display at the Bournemouth Air Festival. Flight Lieutenant Jon Egging, pilot of Red 4, was killed in the accident.

People gathered on the beach on Saturday and Sunday evening to pay tribute to him and the town hall opened two books of condolence for his family, which has now been increased to six books. At the start of yesterdays displays, they screened a tribute for him on the giant TV screens along the beach, comprised of pictures of him and footage of him flying with the Red Arrows, and I have never seen the beaches so packed, yet so still and so quiet. Everyone stopped whatever they were doing and you couldn't hear anything the whole time it played.

It doesn't feel right to talk about all the things Peter and I did, all the things we enjoyed, not now. The Red Arrows are an iconic part of British life and they were amazing in the two displays they put on at the festival here this year, so I'll leave you with that:

Friday's display:

Saturday's display:

NEWS REPORT



♥♥♥

Comments

[chaosmaka.livejournal.com]

That's sad :( *cuddles*

[the-muppet.livejournal.com]

*hugs lots*

[psycho-warbaby.livejournal.com]

It was on the news in Australia, and I immediately thought that you were there. I hope you weren't unfortunate enough to witness the accident. My sympathies are with Flt Lt Egging's family.

[the-muppet.livejournal.com]

I didn't see it, thankfully. I'm going to go down and sign the condolence books at some point this week.

[el1ie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the personal insight to the tribute on the beach - a very fitting memorial and one I'm sure appreciated by all his family, friends and team mates.

Clear skies Eggman.

[the-muppet.livejournal.com]

It was actually quite lovely and I'm glad I was there for it. Thank you so much for everything this weekend ♥

[vita-candeo.livejournal.com]

*Major hugs to you*

I don't think you should feel bad about having enjoyed yourself this weekend. Jon Egging did what he did to cause joy in other people's life. He died shortly after a successful show, so he was probably feeling on top of the world at that point. He was a lucky man to get to make a living doing what he loved, and getting to make an impact on the joy of others. I doubt he would want to people to stop enjoying the airshow on his behalf.

He will be missed by his friends, family, and teammates, not to mention the countless people whose lives he touched with his flying.

*more hugs* I'm glad you enjoyed the airshow, since that was the point!

[the-muppet.livejournal.com]

I don't feel bad for having enjoyed myself, I just don't feel like now is the time to talk about it all, really. I jsut feel really sad about what happened and it's kind of overshadowed everything else for me.

I agree with all you've said though and thank you ♥

*hugs lots*

[ansku]

So sorry to hear that :(

[the-muppet.livejournal.com]

It was an incredibly sad last day of the festival.

[valika56.livejournal.com]

It was on the news here as well and I thought of you, of course.

This is a very sad thing.:(

[the-muppet.livejournal.com]

It was very sad indeed.

[prfctdaze.livejournal.com]

I hadn't heard about this tragedy. Very sad :(

*hugs*

[the-muppet.livejournal.com]

It's been a sad couple of days, though the response from people here has been lovely *hugs*

[kimberweeme.livejournal.com]

That is terrible news. But it sounds like the tribute on the beach was respectful and fitting. That, at least, should bring some measure of comfort to his family.

[the-muppet.livejournal.com]

His wife was here this weekend and saw his last display and has said she's been very touched by all that's gone on, so hope too that it's brought her some comfort =)