RED ONE personally thanked a record Bournemouth Air Festival crowd as he led the Arrows home following their final display of the 2016 event.

Flying high above Bournemouth beach on Sunday, he was patched through the festival’s public address system before giving the order to turn on the smoke one last time.

The Red Arrows ace said: “Bournemouth, this is Red One speaking to you direct from the formation. We have loved displaying to you over the past four days, you have been a brilliant crowd. Thank you for all your support.”

His words sparked huge cheers from the spectators, who had packed the beachfront and clifftops throughout yesterday’s displays, which were brought to an end shortly afterwards by a Spitfire from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, then the RAF Typhoon fighter.

Total visitor numbers for the entire event, which was hampered by poor weather on day two and three, have been estimated at 702,300.

This included record turnouts for the opening day and yesterday’s finale.

Day four of the festival started at lunchtime with an impressive mock beach assault, carried out by the Royal Marines supported by the Royal Navy.

Royal Marines Lieutenant Colonel Cliff Dare, explaining the scenario was an attack on a pirate camp, said: “You’ll see Royal Marines fast-roping into pirate craft and you’ll see those Viking vehicles coming along the beach shooting anything that moves.

“What we do, and this sounds a bit cheesy, is we train hard and fight easy, so the planning gives us the ability to be flexible when things go wrong.

After the beach assault came a packed schedule of air displays, which even included the Tigers parachute team, whose appearance had been thrown into doubt because of the wind speeds forecast earlier.

Loud cheers rang out when the first team members were spotted freefalling towards the beach.

Earlier, members of the army team told the Echo they were desperate to give the crowd something to cheer, about after two consecutive days of cancelled jumps due to the weather.

The Tigers’ Lance Corporal Jake Manwaring said: “We all want to jump, that’s why we do what we do. That’s why we’ll jump in 20 knot winds from 1,500ft.

“Even if its a bit rainy, we still like to get out.”

Yesterday afternoon’s display schedule also included the Swiss Air Force Super Puma helicopter, stunt pilot Gerald Cooper, the Royal Navy Black Cats, the Mitchell Bomber, the B-17 Flying Fortress Sally B, and The Blades aerobatic team - which is comprised entirely from former Red Arrows pilots.

Blades leader Mark Cutmore said: “We are one of the few teams that can arrive, weather permitting, over the crowd at the start of the show, so you cannot fail to see the crowds stretching out. It has to be the biggest crowd of the season.”

The BAC Strikemaster also put in a welcome appearance, as did the Brietling wingwalkers.

Meanwhile, bumper crowds packed a host of attractions throughout the afternoon, including the Royal Navy and British Army villages.

The Lower Gardens were also busy, and thousands of people took advantage of the Pilot’s Mess bar in Bournemouth Square.