Mi Amigo flypast: 'I thought, we were under some kind of attack, as fighter jets flew low over Sheffield'

"Thank you for Dave Kessen's excellent video and written coverage of the Mi Amigo memorial fly past (22 February 2024). Any opportunity to celebrate the anti Nazi alliance, led successfully by the Soviet Union and the United States of America, is to be welcomed in this increasingly mean and dishonest decade.

In February 1944, when the failing B17 bomber aircraft got to Endcliffe Park, it was clear that a grass landing would cost lives on the ground. The courage of that US flight crew in sacrificing their lives is emblematic of the courage that had already been required from tens of millions in order to 'rip the guts from the fascist beast' (Churchill's tribute to the Red Army).

Civilian safety is a major theme. However, the flypast of the two US F15 jets failed to be the 'ceremony of innocence' demanded by the occasion. Perhaps distracted by the extremely close proximity of the other aircraft, at least one did not gain sufficient height as it passed over Fulwood Road and Nethergreen Junior School - the hillside above Endcliffe Park being deceptively steep.

One jet roared within a few feet of our chimney. Our velux windows were filled with the glare from the jet engines such that I thought, momentarily, we were under some kind of attack. The noise was by far the loudest I have ever experienced. When I phoned South Yorkshire Police, they refused to register this nuisance.

This avoidable mistake could have been far worse and must have been extremely distressing for more vulnerable residents in Nethergreen.

Many others must have been unaware of the flypast. Flypasts are a serious nuisance, if residents under the flight path are not forewarned, especially in hilly topography where aircraft altitude is likely to vary wildly from moment to moment. A letter should have gone out to all households likely to be impacted. I suspect the pilots were badly briefed about Sheffield's Seven Hills topography.

Buzzing of our cities and suburbs by military jets, in training, was routine until public pressure forced a reluctant change of policy in the 1980s - there must be no return to that high handed behaviour.

US military presence in Britain in 1944 was universally regarded as necessary, benign and welcome. This is no longer the case. As a child, I was taught how to be a kind and courteous guest. The US air force are also guests and should act accordingly."

Nethergreen resident (name and address supplied)