Warning to plane spotters watching flying exercise

A safety warning has been issued to plane spotters watching the Cobra Warrior exercise at RAF Waddington.

Aircraft from Poland, Germany and the UK are involved in the flying training, which takes place twice a year at the Lincolnshire station.

Sgt Brian Rundle said the behaviour of spectators by the fence at the end of the runway was "out of hand", with many using stepladders to get better viewing positions to take photographs.

He said the blast from the jets taking off was "enough to blow somebody off of any kind of stepladder".

Speaking on BBC Radio Lincolnshire, he said: "If you look at a fast jet, something like an F-16, something like a Eurofighter Typhoon, the jet blast, you can feel it, you can hear it. The ground physically shakes as it's accelerating in full reheat to get airborne.

"So, it's not just the people getting blown off their perch, but also protecting their hearing, because it is really quite noisy."

Rundle said safety measure had been put in place including reducing the speed limit on the A15, which runs past the base, and urged spectators to use the official viewing enclosure rather than crossing farmers' fields.

"It's a sad state of affairs that people tend to want to take their safety into their own hands," he said.

"They think they can be safe and they can just get a little bit closer to the fence line."

Plane spotter Dan Trickett said: "I get it at Fairford, where it's missions over Iran, but it's not quite like that here at Waddington.

"As long as people are safe, and most people have been today, there's been no issues as far as I've seen."

Another spotter added: "They are taking away plane spotters' rights to spot planes."

The BBC has contacted the Ministry of Defence for a comment.

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