An estimated 1 million spectators flowed into San Francisco to enjoy the Fleet Week festivities in October 2022 and watch the weekend air show that is the highlight of the event.
Folks camped out all along San Francisco’s waterfront for a glimpse of the jet teams and other performers flying over show center.
Fog is synonymous with San Francisco — you could almost consider it a tourist attraction itself. Sometime during 2010, this meteorological phenomenon was named Karl the Fog by some online pranksters and the name stuck. This year Karl decided to watch the air show too, slowly enveloping the Golden Gate Bridge as the clock ticked down to the opening act.
A unique feature of this air show are commercial airliner flight demonstrations. At the 2022 show, it was provided by United Airlines with a Boeing 777 executing low altitude fly-bys in both landing and cruise configurations.
Meanwhile Karl wiped out any sign of the Bridge and the United 777 was flying in and out of the fog during its routine.
Karl retreated enough for warbird fans to enjoy Greg Colyer’s exciting new performance duo, teamed up with Rob Mitchell, in matching Lockheed T-33 Shooting Stars.
C-17 Globemaster III and HC-27J Spartan fly-bys preceded the energetic flight demo of the F-35C Lightning II. This is the Naval variant of the fifth-generation fighter, later teaming up with a T-2B Buckeye jet trainer for some U.S. Navy tribute fly-bys.
Now it was time for the headliner act, the Blue Angels. As always, the C-130 transport “Fat Albert” got to warm up the crowd first, performing a series of fly-bys. By now Karl had spread from the Bridge all the way to Alcatraz.
The Blues started their show normally but the low fog forced them to shift their flying to a higher altitude. The high show was better for flight safety and allowed them to finish the show, but was worse for ground-based spectators who only saw the jets about half the time.
Thanks to Karl, it turned out that Friday was the best day to see the show. The Saturday show was cut short and Sunday’s was cancelled completely. Karl can be one mean-spirited dude.
The Fleet Week tradition started more than 100 years ago in May 1908, when 16 Navy battleships, their escort ships, and 14,000 sailors entered San Francisco Bay. This fleet remained in San Francisco for two months before departing for the remainder of its 14-month cruise around the world.
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