★★★★★ 0/5

Just another Top Gear stunt

It seems October's "airship crash" by James May was full of hot air.

5
Leave a comment

maydayIt seems like anything with a balloon is license for a fake stunt these days…

When millions of UK Top Gear viewers saw James May scream “Mayday! Mayday!” as he crashed an airship to the ground while flying a caravan was faked, according to an airship pilot.

The airship was supposed to land on a cricket pitch but strong winds blew it off course and it landed on its side in a farmer’s field, after first straying over Norwich airport – sparking a police helicopter to circle his craft.

Pilot Chris Sanger-Davies said the crash was “a controlled accident” and that he was with May in the attached caravan and took the controls for difficult manoeuvres.

But the BBC show’s producers got clearance from the airport to stage the scene and a private helicopter firm provided the “police” chopper.

Steve O’Brian, chief pilot at Sterling helicopters, said: “There was no real emergency – we were hired to play along.

“The balloon turned up at Norwich airport on the back of a truck, it did not fly there – I saw them set it up.”

A producer insisted May did fly and a crash did happen saying,”The airport thing was just a bit of fun.”

Source: The Sun

5 Responses

  1. As a CaravansTV show producer in the UK, I just wish I had the kind of budget to do what these guy’s do, good content make good telly, together with the best editing skills, makes this programme superb to watch – and that’s why they have such a massive following . . . . . .

    OH Yeh, and the cars are good too !

    I think Top Gear is one of the best programmes on the BBC, and it gets better all the time. I thought this particular episide was also great, and thier world wide decleration for hating Caravans continues Brilliently, a reputation they need to keep up ! . . . . . .Even Though I own a Caravans myself.

    I have seen many websites now, all basically saying the same things, all complaining about the same stuff in regard to Top Gear and thier on screen adventures being fake – Does it matter if the whole thing is staged ?

    I’t s all about getting ratings, and the best way for the BBC to do this is by entertainement, and that’s why they do what they do, to entertain us, it works – and they know it . . . .Top Gear used to be boring – No longer

    Keep it up Guy’s !

  2. It reminds me of when they went caravaning and Jeremy made chips using a deep fryer and the hot oil catches on fire and James and Richard join in to put it out. One of them throws a burning cushion out of the window and just next to a parked caravan next door and it burns down.

Leave a Reply