Legendary British commentator Sean Maffett was "gobsmacked" when he heard that the Air Display Association of Europe had awarded him the annual Hayward Aviation Award.
Given to the person who had ‘made the most outstanding contribution to the air display industry over the past year', the prestigious award came as such a surprise that he wasn't even there to attend the prize giving due to his commitment in Dubai, and only heard about it later.
Now a full-time broadcaster and journalist, Sean – making his second appearance as the English language voice of the Dubai airshow – began a career in aviation with 20 years in Britain's Royal Air Force.
He is perhaps best-known for his commentaries at the Royal International Air Tattoo, the world's largest military air display, held each summer at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.
Commenting on the award, he says: "I really am delighted to have been honoured in this way.
"Air displays are hugely popular in the UK with annual attendance figures of around 6.8-million – second only to soccer.
"They're also very safe and I suspect that the award it partly because of the number of TV and radio interviews I did in the British media in the aftermath of the tragic crash of a Sukhoi aircraft at an air display in the Ukraine earlier this year when spectators were killed.
"No member of the public has been killed or seriously injured at a British airshow since the early 1950s and all I did really was to publicise this fact."
Source: Flight Daily News
