I VERY much regret the news that four people died in the crash of an executive jet at Blackbushe Airport last Friday, and that another pilot was killed during a fast jet flying display during CarFest at Oulton Park on Saturday.

In the first instance the aircraft veered away from the runwayand crashed into a car auction site located on the airfield itself, while the fast jet rolled and dived to the left, leaving its intended direction of flight, the Display Fly Line, before crashing into woodland.

Airfields are intended to be large open spaces where, in an emergency, an aircraft can make a forced landing or crash. Pilots in difficulty do not have to use the runway and, as we have witnessed recently, aircraft can and will come down anywhere as circumstances dictate, possibly throwing out debris and catching fire in the process.

The open ground on an airfield therefore provides a clear safe zone that reduces the likelihood of damage to people or property when things go wrong. It provides the margin of safety needed during general operations and also, with additional rules in place, during notified flying displays.

Old Sarum Airfield has a large open space for all the right reasons. It is dangerously irresponsible to contemplate building 480 houses on that ground. Common sense alone dictates that the proposed development of the airfield is unsafe and should be stopped.

D K JOYCE Salisbury