RAF BENSON SUPPORT TO THE KING’S CORONATION FLYPAST

The Kings Coronation Flypast was to be a Tri-service event to mark the coronation which would include 68 aircraft from across defence.

Written By: Squadron Leader Karim Zid, 28 Sqn

The rotary element would lead the formation and comprise of 16 aircraft from all 3 services. This was made up of the following:

3 x Juno aircraft

Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm 2 x Merlin and 1 x Wildcat

2 x CHF Merlin and 1 x Wildcat

1 x AAC Wildcat and 2 x Apache

3 x Chinook and 1 x Puma

To facilitate the package RAF Benson was chosen to host all rotary aircraft for staging and refuel, in total 22 aircraft would be hosted at Benson including a few spare aircraft just in case. The staging and refuel plan is the most critical as aircraft need to be co-ordinated for arrival and be able to refuel in time to all depart at the same time. The plan was created as a team effort with numerous other sections at RAF Benson. With the help of Flt Lt Robinson in operations the team was pulled together. Collaboration was essential to the plans success involving Air Traffic Control, Tactical Supply Wing, Refuellers, MT, ground handlers, Fire Section, Met Office and individual force HQ’s. If the staging plan failed the flypast would also fail.

A few days prior to the event it was looking like weather would not be on our side. For the full formation to occur the weather needs to meet certain minimum cloud bases and visibility. This is to ensure a safe flypast over London. Flying nearly 70 aircraft over London some of which are very large is difficult. Prior to this, numerous planning events have occurred with the entire formation to ensure every aircraft type and captain understood their part in the flypast and the importance of making timings to the second.

The day before the flypast it was clear weather would be an issue. As a result, the staging plan at Benson was changed to allow some aircraft to arrive earlier to get ahead of the bad weather.

All sections pulled together to adapt to a complex plan that had to be changed at short notice.

Unfortunately, in the end, the weather forced the decision that only the Rotary and The Red Arrows would conduct the flypast.

This placed extra strain on Benson due to several limitations. Despite having 3 Rotors turning refuelling spots we were only able to refuel 3 x Wildcat simultaneously with the other larger helicopters refuelling individually due to increased fire cover requirements. The morning of the flypast Team Benson worked its magic to accommodate all aircraft for shutdown refuels as they had arrived earlier ahead of the weather. This is a testament to the excellent work of RAF Benson.

The hard part of staging all aircraft was now done thanks to the efforts of the team at Benson. All 16 aircraft departed on time. The weather was poor and in true rotary fashion the formation battled through the weather, arriving in London, on time, over the palace.

The pictures of the aircraft over Buckingham Palace never tell the story of the energy, professionalism and commitment required on the ground to achieve such a feat. Benson can be justly proud of a job well done.