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For the first time in 38 years, the Royal International Air Tattoo was completely cancelled due
to conditions in the car parks, and to some extent on the airfield, caused by unseasonal heavy rainfall. With the help of some of the BBC News reports and Flightline UK's own daily report surrounding the build up to the public days, Paul Johnson/Flightline UK looks at the reasons for the cancellation. All photography copyright of Author.
The problems for the Royal International Air Tattoo organisers started quite a while before they were able to move on the airfield. 2008 had already proved itself to be unusually wet with weather affecting a number of events in May, June and July. RAF Fairford is situated on an expansive floodplain, great for the construction of large airfield, but not that brilliant at draining away millions of litres of water. The forecast for the days leading upto the Air Tattoo was not encouraging with blustery wet conditions forecast throughout the week leading to the public days
Monday 7th July - Weather delays RAF Flypast Reheasal (BBC News Report)
The very heavy bands of rain sweeping the country after the weekend forced the RAF to abandon rehearasls for the 90th Anniversary flypast due to take place on Friday 11th July. While the rehearsal didn't affect Air Tattoo planning and was easily rescheduled for the reserve day on Tuesday,
it was an early sign of the
problems ahead. The weather on Tuesday was far kinder allowing the rehearsal and the first few arrivals (three F-22A Raptors, a KC-135R, a KC-10A Extender as well as a RAF Harrier GR9) to land safely at RAF Fairford
Wednesday 9th July - Air Tattoo races to get back on track following heavy rain (Flightline UK Daily report / BBC News Report)
Wednesday was an extraordinarily wet day. Heavy rain battered Fairford for many hours. Not only did the arrivals schedule suffer with many aircraft socked in at their respective based waiting for improvements at Fairford, but the showground started to show the first signs of problems. The Red Car park in particular was used for the park and view visitors was particularly churned up by the end of the day. The surrounding campsites were also reporting problems. More and more arrivals on the sodden ground made several areas look more akin to swamps and it wasn't long before people were being turned away or headed home after it became too much!
Thursday 10th July - The Showers just keep coming on top of more usual problems (Flightline UK report)
  Much to everyones's relief, Thursday was much drier. However, that didn't mean the rain had gone away. Heavy showers were still running through the Cotswolds depositing large amounts of water on Fairford which didn't allow the ground to soak in much of the surface water now evident on the showground and
in the campsites. There was a further incident when Delta Jets Jet Provost Mk5 suffered a tyre burst on landing. The JP came to rest on the edge of the runway but it wasn't long before the aircraft was recovered to a safe place so the tyre could be changed.
Friday 11th July - RAF Anniversary event success, Saturday's Air Tattoo Cancelled (Flightline UK report / BBC News Report)
  Friday was a day of mixed emotions for the Air Tattoo organisers. The RAF 90th Anniversary celebrations was a huge success plus visitors to Fairford had seen the extraordinary rehearsal by the F-22 Raptor. However, the car parks used on Friday had become "no-go
areas" after further heavy showers saturated them and the airfield. At times Fairford's main runway looked more akin to a lake and large areas of churned up mud had started to appear all over the show ground. It was clear to organisers that Fairford was becoming unsafe ot the public and the painful decision to cancel Saturday's Air Tattoo was taken.
Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th July - Fairford remains quiet (BBC News Report)
 Saturday awoke slowly for an Air Tattoo weekend. All flying was cancelled The
only visitors allowed in to RAF Fairford were the corporate guests who took the opportunity to network in the more peaceful surroundings of the static park and VIP chalets. A few scheduled movements to allow some acts to get some other displays did take place but Fairford was a eeriely
silent place. Works were continuing to try and save the car parks to allow Sunday to go ahead but it was a losing battle, not helped by further heavy rain showers in the afternoon. At 4pm , the decision to cancel the second day of the Air Tattoo was taken much to the is of everybody ranging from the organisers, the air and ground crews, volunteers and the public alike.
I felt particularly for the volunteers who year on year give up their time to help make RIAT the success it is. To have worked so hard for the days leading up to the Air Tattoo only to see it cancelled must have been particularly heart breaking.
2009 and beyond (BBC News Report)
However, looking to the future some valuable lessons have been learnt for Air Tattoo organisers. Both the weather in 2007 and 2008 has given the organisers plenty of food for thought when it comes to running the event and how the weather can affect RIAT. New initiatives will be put into place for RIAT 2009 which will include Fairford becoming a ticket only event as well as new car parking plans.
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