DesportoPortugal

Safety plan for Red Bull air race secured, competition moves back to Porto

A safety plan for the Red Bull Air Race has been secured and means the popular event will take place in Portugal after all, in Porto, after plans to stage it from the Maia municipal aerodrome were rocked due to operational breaches at the base, leaving the possibility of the event hanging.

Gaia Mayor Eduardo Vítor Rodrigues said the safety plan means the event will go ahead on 2 and 3 September as originally planned, and “the deal is sealed.”
“Policing has been reinforced on all levels. I don’t think there are any significant risks. Everything is under control. The biggest risk is not the county itself; it’s having 600,000 people a day in Gaia and 400,000 in Porto. It’s having one million people concentrated within a nucleus that must be absolutely secure”, he said.
Mayor Rodrigues said an “impeccable security unit” has been made available that “involves everyone”, from firefighters to municipal workers, PSP and investigation police.
Plans were drawn up between the Porto and Vila Nova de Gaia councils.
The Red Bull Air Race unfolds over the Douro River with planes soaring overhead at around 370 kilometres per hour, between the Luís I and Arrábida bridges. The planes aim to perform acrobatics along the river and complete an obstacle course of large inflatables on the river.
Giant screens are to be erected along the banks of the Douro River for the crowds to get a closer view of the planes.
The busiest spots will be closed off with concrete structures to prevent major risks.
“This is to avoid what we have seen in other cities where vehicles are used as a weapon”, the Mayor explained.
Just last week the race was left hanging after the Portuguese Civil Aviation Authority (ANAC) said it would not recognise Maia municipal aerodrome as an air traffic service provider.
The aerodrome director, Pedro Barros Prata, told Lusa that ANAC had written them a letter to invalidate “the repetition as a service provider as it had done in previous editions”, where the aerodrome was used as the operating base for the competition.
ANAC warned that any breach of the notification would be a very serious aeronautical misdemeanour. Pedro Barros Prata acknowledged that “nothing can be done to alter the regulator’s decision”.
On the Red Bull Air Race website, organisers wrote: “The historic city of Porto is back on the Red Bull Air Race schedule for 2017, which is music to the ears of the pilots and fans alike. “Boasting one of the most beautiful and challenging courses on the whole calendar in the snaking, narrow run along the Douro River, expect a tough challenge for the pilots during the final over-water race of 2017, and a huge crowd to line the river’s banks to get close to the action.”
The race has been previously staged in Porto between 2007 and 2009.
None of the current pilots have ever won in Porto.

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