Thunderbirds Headline 2007 Air & Sea Show Over Fort Lauderdale Beach
Six U.S. Air Force F-16s in red, white and blue paint pulled up over the Atlantic shortly after 3 p.m. Saturday, locked into a tight delta formation, and rolled east across the demonstration box just offshore from Fort Lauderdale Beach.
Six U.S. Air Force F-16s in red, white and blue paint pulled up over the Atlantic shortly after 3 p.m. Saturday, locked into a tight delta formation, and rolled east across the demonstration box just offshore from Fort Lauderdale Beach. The Air Force Thunderbirds were the headline act of the 13th annual McDonald's Air & Sea Show, alternating top billing with the Navy Blue Angels in the rotation the two demonstration teams have shared at this event for years.
The Thunderbirds' Saturday demonstration ran the team's standard show — the diamond formation pass, the bomb burst maneuver out of a vertical climb, the calypso pass with one F-16 rolled inverted alongside a wingman, and the high-speed solo run timed to enter the box from behind the crowd. Narration from team officer "Thunderbird 8" tracked each maneuver across the public-address system stretched along several miles of A1A.
The wider lineup again included the Army Golden Knights parachute team, an Air Force C-17 Globemaster heavy-lift demonstration, AV-8B Harrier vertical-takeoff demonstrations from Marine Corps detachments, and Coast Guard search-and-rescue scenarios played out close enough to the beach for spectators to track the rescue swimmers in the water. Heritage flights paired modern fighters with restored World War II warbirds for slow flybys past the pier.
Crowds along the beach arrived early. By the time the Saturday flying program started shortly before 11 a.m., the sand from Sebastian Street north to Sunrise Boulevard was effectively full, with overflow crowds settled in on the seawall and along the medians of A1A north of the closure points. The Broward Sheriff's Office, Fort Lauderdale Police and Florida Highway Patrol kept the modified traffic plan in place from Friday night through the close of Sunday's show.
The Thunderbirds are scheduled to fly the closing demonstration Sunday afternoon. With graduation ceremonies for Piper, Plantation, Western, South Plantation and the rest of central and west Broward's high schools roughly four weeks away, the weekend is the last large-scale outdoor event on the regional calendar before finals and prom take over.