ORGANISERS of the Bournemouth Air Festival say they are doing all they can to bring the Vulcan bomber in for a second display.

As reported in the Daily Echo, there was a public outcry after it was revealed that, despite the funding being in place from sponsors, event organisers had taken the decision not to have it fly on the Saturday of the show, August 22, because of fears of over-crowding.

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The team behind the festival said that, with the Saturday of the four-day event always being by far the busiest day - last year attracting a capacity 440,000 crowd - the 'head-over-heart' decision had been made not to have the Vulcan display on a bill that includes the other big crowd-puller, the Red Arrows.

Yesterday, air festival director, Jon Weaver, said: "A considerable amount of effort from the air festival team has been made to try and bring the Vulcan to the Bournemouth Air Festival for a second day.

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"We have been in dialogue with the Vulcan to the Sky Trust about the possibility of a spectacular festival first of a Vulcan dusk display on the Thursday or Friday evening.

"The Vulcan is available and funding is in place, but the trust is struggling to find aircrew to make this happen. We will continue to liaise with the trust in the hope that a crew can be found.”

Regardless of whether it does a second display or not, the Vulcan is still scheduled to perform on Sunday, August 23, as originally planned, in its final appearance at Bournemouth before it retires from displays.

Its appearances in recent years and in 2015 have been sponsored by Adrian Gunner of Merley House, Stephen Young, Lord of Westbury and Waxham, and the Vulcan to the Sky Team Bournemouth.

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Stephen Young said: “I am 100 per cent behind the council’s efforts to bring the Vulcan to Bournemouth for a second display. I’d be honoured to have supported its final display appearance on the south coast – I’ve got my fingers crossed.”

Dr Robert Pleming, CEO of the Vulcan to the Sky Trust, which operates the aircraft, confirmed that it was struggling to find a crew, as many have day jobs with airlines.

Following the response online and on social media to the Echo's stories last Friday and Saturday, Colin Billing, who lives in Southbourne, started an online petition at change.org.

As the Echo went to press, it had around 800 signatures.