Slip-up by Spitfire fan lands Red Arrows for show instead

Stuart Wright was hoping to book a solitary Spitfire for his wartime experience weekend but filled out the wrong form.

After ringing to enquire, he discovered he had actually booked the country’s most famous high flying aerobatics team, who pilot sophisticated modern jets rather than the historic aircraft he had expected.

The daredevil pilots are set to soar over Hunsworth, near Cleckheaton, next month when it is transformed into a make-believe battlefield for the Yorkshire Wartime Experience weekend.

Mr Wright said: “Instead of getting a Spitfire we have got the Red Arrows.

“I received a form that said I had to write down how many aircraft are in the show so I phoned them back and said I didn’t understand.

“I was told that we have got the Red Arrows so I told them I didn’t book them.

“I had another look at the form and it turns out we didn’t fill the Spitfire form in.

“They have got two quite important things happening this year with the Queen’s Jubilee and the Olympics so the Red Arrows flying time has been reduced, so to get them is quite something,” he said.

Organiser Mr Wright says the three-day event is expected to raise money to support the work of SSAFA Forces Help – which aids servicemen and their families in times of need – and for the Royal British Legion.

Mr Wright, of Bradford, added: “These aircraft are coming for nothing. I have no idea how much it is to fly one, let alone seven.

“I have asked if there is still a chance for the Battle of Britain flyby. If you don’t ask you never know.”

The Red Arrows are to make an appearance on Sunday, June 24.

The RAF display team was hit by a tragedies last year with the deaths of two of its pilots, in unrelated incidents.

One was killed when an aircraft ejector seat was apparently triggered while the aircraft was on the ground at RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire, and earlier in the year another died when his aircraft went down following a display at Bournemouth.