Chartered Surveyors Lowestoft Suffolk

Approximate Population: 57,746

For two days each year, Lowestoft’s South Beach plays host to the Seafront Air Festival. Since its first opening in 1996, the event has gained much popularity and media attention.

In 2002, a Royal Air Force Harrier plane crashed into the sea during the festival. An RAF board of inquiry later established that the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Cann, had accidentally operated the controls for throttle and nozzle direction lever at the same time, causing it to drop sharply. Cann ejected as the aircraft dropped, via the ejector seat to rise safely above the crashed plane.

He then descended safely by parachute until he struck the sinking plane and fractured his ankle. People in the sea were swiftly evacuated, and the Lowestoft Lifeboat was quickly on hand to take the pilot from the sea to the harbour where he was winched to the SAR Helicopter from RAF Wattisham and flown to James Paget Hospital in Great Yarmouth. The recovery of the aircraft was watched by hundreds as it was winched out of the North Sea several days later.

Future performances were thought to be under threat with the cessation of the main sponsorship by the Birds Eye frozen food company, but the show is administratively underwritten by the local district council until 2010, and new main sponsors are currently being sought by the management committee. In 2006 only £62,000 was raised in donations from the estimated 420,000 spectators, but in 2007 donations of £59,000 from the reduced crowd of 270,000 (due to poor weather on the first day) is considered a positive step towards the future of the show, as is the new link forged with the Honda Powerboat Grand Prix which was held on the two days following the air show.

Chartered Surveyors Lowestoft Suffolk