Miramar Air Show grounded for second year due to coronavirus

Citing public health risks, the Marines announced Thursday the annual Miramar Air Show is again being canceled this year.

Col. Charles Dockery, the commanding officer of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, said the decision was made based on safety and public health.

“MCAS Miramar has always prioritized our community’s safety throughout the pandemic, beginning the moment we hosted evacuees from Wuhan to our daily operations delivering National Defense, and this decision is no different,” Dockery said in a statement. “It remains the right choice to look ahead to 2022 and make it better than ever.”

Dockery’s statement echoes one he made in June 2020 when the Marines announced the air show’s cancellation, when he also said it remained a “prudent choice to look ahead to 2021 and make it better than ever.”

The public health situation in June 2020 was much different that the one the Marines face in 2021. At that time, San Diego County was on the precipice of a mild summer spike in Covid-19 cases and a vaccine was months away. Today, more than 1 million county residents are fully vaccinated, including nearly half the active duty military population.

Dockery acknowledged the increased vaccination rate but said the size of the crowds at the air show and the travel involved presented too many risks.

“The Miramar Air Show brings in aviation and military enthusiasts from every corner of the world,” Dockery said. “And, while San Diego continues to lead the way in vaccines and beginning to reopen, there are still a great many risks involved with a gathering on the scale of our air show.”

The Miramar Air Show is the largest military air show in the world and draws about 500,000 guests when it’s held each September. It marks the one time a year San Diego residents can catch a glimpse of the Navy’s famed Blue Angels and many other aircraft rarely seen in the region’s busy skies, such as Air Force F-16s and, in 2018, a U-2 spy plane.