Red Arrows return to UK after being grounded

The Red Arrows are expected to return to their base at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire later after being stranded in Canada.

The RAF's aerobatics team had been due to return following its tour of the US, but were grounded due to poor weather predicted for north-eastern regions of Canada.

The delay resulted in the team pulling out of a number of key summer events in the UK, including Lyme Regis and Eastbourne.

The jets, which are unable to refuel mid-flight, arrived back in the UK at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland on Sunday after refuelling stops in Greenland and Iceland.

In a social media post, the team wrote: "Back in the UK. The Red Arrows have landed at RAF Lossiemouth [on its] multi-leg journey home from North America.

"The team has one more flight home to RAF Waddington to complete the Operation Eagle Hawk return."

The Red Arrows had been due to appear at Airbourne: Eastbourne International Airshow, the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and Lyme Regis Lifeboat Week.

Devon-based wheelbarrow performance group the Bradninch Red Barrows, formed to raise money for charities by doing parody displays of the Red Arrows, stepped in to fill the void left by their high-flying counterparts.

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress Sally B, the last remaining airworthy example in Europe, was among the additions to the programme in Eastbourne after the Red Arrows cancelled.

The RAF's aerobatics team are due to resume their summer schedule with a display at Cromer Carnival on the Norfolk coast on Wednesday.

Other dates in the schedule are expected to go ahead as planned, a spokesperson said.

The team had been in the US to mark 250 years of American independence.

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