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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Alasdair Clark

Watch as Red Arrows land at airport after being forced to abort Edinburgh Castle flyover

A Red Arrows flypast over Edinburgh for VJ Day was cancelled due to the cloudy weather, forcing the famous jets to land at Prestwick Airport.

It came as the UK marked the 75th anniversary of VJ day, with events across Scotland including an online tribute from First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

The commemorations to mark 75 years since VJ Day was supposed to include the Red Arrows flying over Edinburgh, Belfast, Cardiff and London for the first time since the 2012 Olympic Games.

Hundreds of locals gathered to watch the flypast that had been scheduled for approximately 11.30am.

But because of the "low cloud outside of safety limits" in Edinburgh, the pilots diverted to fly over Prestwick Airport, where they landed to refuel and met three veterans of the Second World War.

The Red Arrow's Twitter account said low cloud over Edinburgh was "outside safety limits".

They added: "Weather particularly challenging in parts of the UK today - meaning this could impact plans."

The three veterans who were greeted by the Red Arrows were 96-year-old Whitson Johnson, Albert Lamond, 94, and 93-year-old Bernard "Barney" Roberts.

Mr Johnson served in the RAF from 1942 to 1947, deciphering codes in support of the Fourteenth Army in the Far East and also spent time in Bombay, Calcutta, Chittagong, Hmawbi and Burma.

Royal Navy serviceman Mr Lamond served from 1943 to 1947 as a signalman.

He fought at Sword Beach during the D-Day campaign and was later attached to the Pacific fleet that joined with the American navy under the command of Admiral Halsey in the Far East.

Mr Roberts also served in the Royal Navy, from 1942 to 1947, initially serving on a minelayer to protect the Arctic convoys from German U-boats before fighting in Italy and North Africa.

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