I was watching the RAF's Red Arrows display team one summer - many years ago now, back in the '80's - in Brighton. The climax of the display was a low-level high-speed pass right along the sea-front in front of the thousands of holidaymakers who were watching.

There are (or were, in those days) two piers in Brighton and between them, several yachts had moored to watch the show. One plane vaulted over the West Pier, hit the top of one of the yachts' masts, knocked part of his tailplane off, went into a steep climb, the pilot ejected and the plane went into the sea a few hundred yards past the Palace Pier, which was also crowded with people. The whole thing took a few seconds.

The spooky thing about it all was that a) there was very little press coverage about it afterwards and b) what there was, was concentrated on the heroism (!) of the pilot and the yachtsman who had up-anchored, motored over to where he was in the water and pulled him out. No journalist ever seemed to ask the question of what would've happened had the plane not cleared the pier, or had gone the other way and hit the town and/or the thousands of spectators. I well remember seeing the yacht that had been struck motoring back to the marina with the top part of its mast pointing forward. Having become a boat owner myself in the meantime, I know that the average mast of a thirty-footer would be about 15 metres (45 feet) high, so the plane must have been lower than that. 700 feet would've been fine.

No, I'm with MMario on this one - watch 'em on TV!