Red Arrows return for Lyme Regis flypast after display cancelled

The Red Arrows will perform a flypast over the Dorset coast, nearly two weeks after a display was cancelled due to them being stranded in Canada.

The RAF aerobatic team had been due to display at the Lyme Regis RNLI Lifeboat Week on 16 August but pulled out after poor weather left them grounded at Goose Bay.

The gap in the schedule was filled by wheelbarrow performance group the Bradninch Red Barrows.

The Red Arrows will fly in formation over the seafront and Lyme Bay at 18:35 BST on Friday but will not perform an aerobatic display.

The Reds originally scheduled the flypast for Saturday lunchtime but the weather forecast and operational constraints have led to an amended timetable.

They said in a Facebook post: "With poor weather into the bank holiday weekend, the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team will be doing all it can to get to planned events and displays.

"However, due to forecasted conditions, and operational constraints impacting which airfields the Red Arrows will be able to use in the coming days, there will be changes to these scheduled performances."

It said the RAF Wyton Families' Day display in Cambridgeshire on Thursday afternoon had been cancelled, the flypast for Lyme Regis would be at 18:35 on Friday, and the planned Sidmouth Regatta and Airshow display in Devon would now be a flypast at 18:40 on Friday.

Lyme Regis mayor Philip Evans said: "We were naturally disappointed when circumstances outside anyone's control meant the Red Arrows couldn't join us earlier this month, so we're delighted that Lyme Regis has another opportunity to welcome them back to our skies.

"It may only be a brief visit this time, but we're sure it will still be a spectacular sight over Lyme Bay and something residents and visitors will enjoy."

Visitors are urged to use public transport where possible and allow plenty of time for their journey.

The Red Arrows were delayed returning from their tour of the US, resulting in them pulling out of displays, including Lyme Regis Lifeboat Week and Airbourne airshow in Eastbourne, East Sussex.

The jets, which are unable to refuel mid-flight, arrived back in the UK at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland on 16 August after refuelling stops in Greenland and Iceland.

The Red Barrows, from Bradninch, Devon, describe themselves as an "elite display squadron", performing "precision formation flying through rings of fire, smoke trails and death-defying low passes at air shows across the south west".

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