ORGANISERS of world's biggest airshow today pledged to review transport arrangements, after visitors had to contend with massive traffic tailbacks to get to the event.
Hundreds of thousands of aviation fans flocked to RAF Fairford at the weekend for the Royal International Air Tattoo, and although organisers warned there would be tailbacks, the scale of them astonished many. On both Saturday and Sunday there were lengthy queues getting off the M4 at junction 15 almost 15 miles from the event. Visitors faced further queues on arrival at the airfield because of tight security measures brought in post September 11.
Meanwhile, an eight-car collision on the M4 led to further long delays for motorists returning from the airshow last night.
The crash happened at 7.21pm when two cars travelling eastbound just past junction 15 collided, involving another six vehicles. The only serious casualty was a 25-year-old woman with a neck injury who had to be cut free the wreckage. Fortunately, a baby in the front seat of that car was unhurt.
The A419 sliproad on to Junction 15 was closed until 8.30pm and traffic was diverted via Marlborough before the motorway re-opened at 9pm.
Airshow spokesman, John Howell promised transport improvements.
He said: "We've had more traffic this year than we have ever had before which has caused people coming here some problems. Every year we try and keep traffic problems to a minimum and we will be seeing what changes we can make to improve the situation for next year's show.
Tailbacks heading towards Fairford on the A419 past Cricklade peaked at more than 10-miles in the morning on both days.
The worst problems were caused at Lechlade where there were also ten-mile queues approaching Fairford on the A361 and A417.
On both days traffic did not ease until early afternoon and there were reports of some motorists giving up and going home. Vulcan, the event's official radio station was heard congratulating spectators on braving the queues.
On reaching the show, visitors were searched and required to walk through airport-style metal detectors at the venue. The security measures meant some show-goers had to wait for up to 90 minutes before getting into the site.
The RIAT, the largest airshow in the world, returned to RAF Fairford after a two-year break caused necessary repair work on the runways.
Organisers said numbers were expected to be around the 200,000 which have attended in previous years - road traffic was said to be 15 per cent up this year.
Some 350 planes took part in the event representing over 30 countries.
The only serious incident happened on Saturday afternoon when an Italian G222 transport plane burst into flames when its front wheel collapsed on landing.
Fire crews extinguished the blaze within two minutes and none of the three crew on the Italian Air Force plane were hurt.
The incident disrupted flying for about two hours but the show carried on and organisers juggled the schedule by putting on aircraft like helicopters and the vertical take-off Harrier jet which did not require the full runway.
Prince Andrew, who was flying the flag for exports, turned up to see some of the $8 trillion worth of military hardware.
One high-point of the weekend was a flyby of World War Two bombers and fighter aircraft witnessed by 12 veterans of the conflict.
The former airmen included members of the 617 "Dambusters" Squadron and US General Rob Burns from the US 8th air-force.
The star attraction of both days was the incomparable US B3 Stealth bomber.
It flew non-stop from its base in Missouri, USA, to over-fly the air show before returning across the Atlantic with the help of mid-air re-fuelling.
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