Blue Angels grounding may sink Fleet Week

The Blue Angels will not be flying over San Francisco this October due to federal budget cuts. The Blue Angels will not be flying over San Francisco this October due to federal budget cuts. Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice, The Chronicle Photo: Deanne Fitzmaurice, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 78 Caption Close Blue Angels grounding may sink Fleet Week 1 / 78 Back to Gallery

The future of San Francisco's annual Fleet Week was thrown into doubt Tuesday when the Navy grounded the show's star attraction, the Blue Angels precision flying team, citing federal budget cuts.

Officials said they would try to salvage an event that draws as many as 1 million visitors to the northern waterfront each fall, many of them to watch the half-dozen F/A-18 fighter jets shriek overhead in tight formation.

But J. Michael Myatt, a retired Marine Corps major general who heads the Fleet Week organizing group, acknowledged that without the Blue Angels, it might not be possible to stage the Parade of Ships naval flotilla and an air show featuring lesser attractions.

"It is an economic issue, because it's very expensive," Myatt said. "Without the Blue Angels, it's difficult for us to raise the money to put that on.

"There likely will not be an air show without the Blue Angels," Myatt said, and the Parade of Ships could be in jeopardy as well because of the Pentagon's budget cuts.

Myatt said this year's Fleet Week, scheduled for Oct. 12 and 13, might still include other types of military demonstrations such as those showcasing humanitarian assistance and disaster preparedness.

'Not good news'

Those would be unlikely, however, to draw the kinds of crowds that flock to see the Blue Angels.

"Clearly, it's not good news, but it's something we have been talking about," said Christine Falvey, spokeswoman for Mayor Ed Lee. "The economic impact of Fleet Week is significant. We're going to find a way to make it work."

The Blue Angels perform all over the country for eight months of the year, but they don't come cheap - the Navy says the team's annual budget is $35 million. On Tuesday, the service said that was a luxury the Pentagon could no longer afford, because of the budget cuts known as sequestration.

The Navy canceled the Blue Angels' 30 remaining performances for 2013, and said there were no promises the jets would be back in the skies next year.

"Recognizing budget realities, current defense policy states that outreach events can only be supported with local assets at no cost to the government," the Navy said in a statement.

Sequestration is the term for $85 billion in cuts, divided between military spending and social programs, that Congress and the Obama administration agreed to in 2011 as part of the deal to raise the federal debt ceiling. The cuts were supposed to provide incentive for Republicans and Democrats to agree to a deficit-reduction package more palatable to both sides, but lawmakers couldn't come up with such a package and sequestration took effect in March.

Pilots in Pensacola

Blue Angels pilots will continue to "maintain flying proficiency" at the team's home base in Pensacola, Fla., said Navy spokesman Lt. Aaron Kakiel.

"The only people more disappointed than the fans about the cancellation are the Blue Angels themselves," Kakiel said.

The Blue Angels, consisting of Navy and Marine Corps personnel, perform not only to impress crowds with their high-flying, earsplitting aerial maneuvers, but also to encourage children to consider a career in the armed forces.

But the team's absence this year will surely come as a relief to many others who have long complained about the jets' noise and questioned whether it is safe for them to fly over the city during the show and two days of warm-up maneuvers. They have pointed to Blue Angels crashes such as one in 2007 that killed a pilot at an air show in South Carolina.

The Blue Angels last skipped Fleet Week in 2004, opting for a Hawaiian date instead. They were replaced that year by the Snowbirds, a slower, quieter Canadian outfit of nine CT-144 Tutors that described itself as "aerial ballet."

'Peace and quiet'

The absence of the roaring U.S. jet fighters this year will be welcomed by Donald Hermann, 86, who has a bird's-eye view of the Angels every fall from his North Point high-rise.

The no-show will be "a bit of a relief, just for the peace and quiet for a change," Hermann said. "I'll just celebrate."

His opinion wasn't shared by politicians who treasure the tourist dollars that Fleet Week brings in.

"While some residents won't miss the jet noise," said Board of Supervisors President David Chiu, "Fleet Week has been a major economic boost to our city, with 1 million spectators, and is an unfortunate casualty of Washington's budget crisis."

Supervisor Mark Farrell, whose district includes part of the northern waterfront, called the news "very disappointing" but said the city would have to move on. "The San Francisco Board of Supervisors tries to be very active, but I think going up against the Department of Defense would be a fruitless endeavor," he said.

Jim Lazarus, senior vice president at the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, said Fleet Week is "one of the biggest draws around the bay, and it would be a shame to lose the air show and lose the Parade of Ships."

But Lazarus added, "This may be the best year, if any, that we could kind of get by without a loss - because we have the America's Cup in the summer and fall."