Cyprus-Forum.com

[zan]

Someone please enlighten me why we need these shitty little red planes polluting the airways let alone see them at the Olympics!

Don't the Red Arrows practice in Cyprus....?

[Get Real!]

Someone please enlighten me why we need these shitty little red planes polluting the airways let alone see them at the Olympics!

Don't the Red Arrows practice in Cyprus....?

They do in several countries including Cyprus.

[zan]

Someone please enlighten me why we need these shitty little red planes polluting the airways let alone see them at the Olympics!

Don't the Red Arrows practice in Cyprus....?

They do in several countries including Cyprus.

I heard that their main practice spot was in the buffer zone in Cyprus.....

[Get Real!]

Someone please enlighten me why we need these shitty little red planes polluting the airways let alone see them at the Olympics!

Don't the Red Arrows practice in Cyprus....?

They do in several countries including Cyprus.

I heard that their main practice spot was in the buffer zone in Cyprus.....

The buffer zone ain't wide enough in most places for something like that...

http://www.raf.mod.uk/reds/

[zan]

[04] Paphos gives thumbs down British Red Arrows aerial display

Nicosia, Mar 20 (CNA) -- Paphos Municipal Council adopted a motion yesterday turning down an aerial display offered by the British Royal Air Force Red Arrows precision flying team over the western coastal town, because they said would harm the environment and pose a safety risk to locals.
Paphos Municipality Public Relations Director, Themis Philipides, told CNA the council adopted the motion after the Cyprus government asked the municipality what it thinks of the aerial displays.

Philipides said the council felt the display would cause undue air and noise pollution, and judged it would pose a public safety hazard because of the possibility of an accident.

However, Sovereign British Area (SBA) Chief Public Relations Officer, Mervyn Wynne-Jones, told CNA the Red Arrows enjoy a safety record second-to- none and that the team's display manoeuvres are carried out "within the strictest safety parametres".

"There is no environmental damage caused by a Red Arrows display," Wynne-Jones told CNA.

Philipides also referred to the row over last month's British military exercises in the environmentally sensitive Akamas region on the island's western tip, which raised a wave of protest by local environmentalists as another reason why the council pulled the plug on the aerial display.

The incident is still fresh in the minds of Paphos' residents and "we didn't want to provoke a reaction out of them," Philipides said.

The British precision aerial team comes to Cyprus every year for about a month at spring time to practice their manoeuvres over SBA Akrotiri, so they can take full advantage of the ideal weather conditions on the island.

Wynne-Jones said it is customary for the Red Arrows to offer displays to a number of towns in Cyprus, but the decision to host a display remains with the town.

Philipides said the Paphos Municipality today received an offer from the Red Arrows, but reiterated the town council's motion was only in response to a request by the Cyprus government to give its opinion on the displays.

He added the town council will reply to the letter in due course.

SBA Deputy Chief Public Relations Officer, Sean Tully, confirmed to CNA that Sovereign Base Area boss, Air Vice-Marshal, Peter Millar, had sent a letter to Paphos Mayor Phidias Sarikas, dated March 12, 1997, formally offering him a display by the Red Arrows over the town.

The letter mentioned that the Red Arrows performed over Paphos last year "to the delight of locals and tourists alike".

The Red Arrows have performed in the past over the towns of Limassol and Larnaca.

Britain, the former colonial power in Cyprus, has retained two sovereign military bases on this east Mediterranean island's southern coast, under the 1960 treaty of establishment of the Cyprus Republic.

[Southerner]

Someone please enlighten me why we need these shitty little red planes polluting the airways let alone see them at the Olympics!

Better than the GC airforce I saw parked outside Paphos airport, they looked more like WWII Lancasters or Shackletons.