On Feb 10, 11:43 pm, Stefan wrote:
If you read the report, you'll learn that those spectators had to jump
from the car roofs before because some gliders came in low. And what did
they do? They climbed onto the roofs again!

This is a good point. It was undeniably a very dangerous place to be
and some measure of responsibility must fall on Lawson.

However it could have been anyone - these gliders were flying at about
4 feet above the crop. Someone could have been walking on a footpath
through the fields. A tractor could have trundled along the lane. The
people treating Lawson had to duck later on. As Tom said above:

What about the other members of the public that were on public
property several hundred metres from the airfield? Do you also expect
them to have a similar understanding of the fine details of a
competition that they might not even realise existed?

The pilot pushed it too hard, and killed a bystander. That cannot and
should not be ignored. Would your position be the same if a rambler
had been killed?

It will be interesting to see the 2007 BGA rules and the CAA response.
I expect this is the end of these ultra-low level finishes (which are
supposedly done to minimise induced drag, even though they do nothing
of the sort at high speeds, the report states), and good riddance.


Dan