I HAVE attended many airshows over the past 30 years but none quite so appalling and poorly organised as RIAT 2002.

Delays and disruptions on the scale experienced by many local residents and visitors alike last weekend are quite unacceptable.

After spending two hours on Saturday morning parked on the A419, I finally reached the official car park at 10am, queued for a further 90 minutes waiting to clear security entering the airfield at 11.30am to the sickening sound of an aircraft impacting on the runway.

Fortunately no one was hurt but the decision to continue with the show given the effect on those who witnessed the incident and the impact on the subsequent flying display, reflects badly on the organisers.

As the flying display shuddered to a close, the usual mass exodus ensued and even those who sought sanctuary at the open air concert found it too plagued by problems.

Later that evening music of an altogether different kind filled the air, as I entered the car park to a fanfare of several hundred car horns heralding yet more traffic chaos.

Escape was futile. I eventually arrived home at 1am, the thought of subjecting myself to more punishment the following day was discarded somewhere between J15 of the M4 and my bed!

It just can't go on like this. Instead of reviewing transport arrangements RIAT need to face up to their responsibilities and find a new home for the Royal International Air Tattoo located at an active airfield close to a major road network.

In the meantime, RIAT have many uncomfortable questions to answer over the coming months, not least how many people will bother returning next year to ensure more of the same?

P G L TAYLOR

Trundle Mead

Horsham

West Sussex