Blue Angels

Okay, so by the grace of some deity, only the pilot died this time. But can we please stop allowing jet fighter stunt shows over major metropolitan areas now? If this accident had occurred over San Francisco — well, enough said.

The arrogant disregard for civilian safety inherent in these shows has bothered me for a very long time.

(…adding: in San Francisco every year the Blue Angels spend two days during Fleet Week buzzing the entire city in tight formation — low altitude, wingtip-to-wingtip through the financial district and over residential neighborhoods. There’s apparently a similar show once a year in Seattle. A lot of people enjoy the spectacle, but it’s always struck me as a really terrible and unnecessary accident waiting to happen. And as the tragedy linked above makes clear, accidents do happen. Click through and you’ll read about people’s homes damaged by falling debris — it was a small miracle that no civilians were killed. If and when an accident like this ever occurs over a densely populated area, we won’t be so lucky…)