UPDATE: Blue Angels performance to go ahead Friday, despite 50-minute weather delay.
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- Foggy conditions over the San Francisco waterfront have called into question whether the Blue Angels will fly Friday. The U.S. Navy close formation demonstration squadron is back this year after being grounded due to a government shutdown 12 months ago.
This year, the Blue Angels, along with the rest of the U.S. military contingent, are scheduled to again take part in the Fleet Week Air Show. Friday's Air Show got underway as expected, kicking off around noon with a low and slow circle of the Bay from a massive United 777.
As of about 3:22 p.m., the Blue Angels are still scheduled to take part in Friday's show. Their performance was initially pushed back until 3:30 p.m. due to fog.
In a subsequent update, officials pushed the show back five minutes to 3:35 p.m.
Several other of the aircraft scheduled to fly in Friday's show could be heard rumbling overhead around 1:30 p.m. However, with a thick covering of fog blanketing downtown SF, the Waterfront and the Embarcadero, it was difficult to see any of the aircraft overhead.
One social media commentator who was at the Air Show concurred that while you could hear planes like the U.S. Marines Corps F-35B, F22 Raptor and Travis AFB C-5, it was impossible to see them.
Listening in to the Air Show audio stream, the question of whether the Blue Angels will fly appears to be literally up in the air as of around 2 p.m. While there has been no official word from the Fleet on the status of the Blue Angels for Friday's show, the announcer on the audio stream sounded uncertain, saying at various points that "hopefully," we'd be able to see show's headline attraction in their trademark F/A-18E/F Super Hornets.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 7: U.S Navy Blue Angels jets fly through fog over the San Francisco Bay as part of the Fleet Week festivities in San Francisco, Calif., on Friday, Oct. 7, 2022. (Photo by Ray Chavez/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty Images)
With the Blue Angels scheduled to take off from Oakland Airport and come roaring in at around 3 p.m., according to the Fleet Week Air Show Schedule, whether or not they perform appears to depend on whether we get a clearing in the fog.
If the Blue Angels do fly, Friday's crowd could be treated to a more limited show, without the team performing some of their more high-altitude maneuvers.
Stick with KRON4 for the latest on the Blue Angels Friday and complete Fleet Week coverage throughout the weekend.
