Flying display director Ian Sheeley says pilots and organisers were as disappointed as the thousands of spectators by the cancellation of yesterday's displays.

But he said safety requirements had made it impossible to fly.

A cloud base of 500 feet had made flying impossible even for the standby "low show" displays each of the teams operates, he said.

"The Typhoon needs 1000ft and the F16 needs 1500ft just for the low show," said Mr Sheeley.

"The problem yesterday was not just over the seafront, but between us and the airport. The Lynx had a look at lunchtime at about 600ft, but had to go to 200ft just to recover to the airport.

"We can cover most eventualities, but if the cloud base is below 500ft there's nothing we can do.

"We have all spent months working to put on a really good show, but you don't have to work in this industry for very long before you're affected by the great british weather!" he added.

Eurofighter Typhoon crew, Mark Harbord, an avionics specialist, and mechanical systems engineer, Philip Ruttle, said the cloud base had fluctuated between 300ft and 600ft yesterday, which would have meant flying at illegally low levels.