Blue Angels Return To Seattle’s Seafair Festival But Aerobatic Group Won’t Fly Over Lake Washington

After a two-year hiatus, the Blue Angels will be flying again at the annual Seafair festival, but not over Lake Washington.

A plan proposed by Seafair has the Navy’s top-gun fliers performing next Aug. 9 through Aug. 11 over Elliott Bay just off Myrtle Edwards Park along the city’s waterfront.

The Navy and the Federal Aviation Administration have approved the plan. Approval by the Defense Department is considered a formality, officials said Friday.

Federal regulations require that aerial acrobatic performances of this type take place over an area cleared of people. Seafair’s Lake Washington site had required a Federal Aviation Administration waiver because approach and departure lanes for the Navy jets crossed residential neighborhoods in Seattle and Mercer Island.

The Blue Angels canceled appearances at Lake Washington during the 1994 and 1995 Seafair festivals because the FAA would no longer grant a waiver.

Seafair replaced the Blue Angels with the Canadian air force Snowbirds flight team in 1994. But the Canadians vowed never to return after some observers said they weren’t nearly as entertaining as the Blue Angels.

Previous Seafair appearances by the Blue Angels coincided with hydroplane races held on the lake.

Next summer’s Texaco Cup hydro races and the downtown Torchlight Parade are still scheduled for the weekend of Aug. 2-4, coinciding with the visit of a Navy carrier group to the city, said Seafair spokeswoman Pat Brown. A separate air show, including individual fly-overs by military and civilian aircraft, still will be held over Lake Washington during the hydro races, Brown said.