Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans failed to show up to lead the launch of the world’s biggest military airshow for “personal reasons”.
Multi-millionaire Chris, who pilots helicopters, was due to star at the launch of the Royal International Air Tattoo in Fairford, Gloucestershire.
Evans should have touched down at the rainy media event with his new wife Natasha Shishmanian in an RAF Grob tutor – the same plane Prince William trained in.
But Tim Prince, director of the Royal International Air Tattoo said the ginger Disc Jockey had mysteriously changed his plans at RAF Odiham, 50 miles away.
He says, “We have been told that Chris Evans has been unavoidably detained for personal reasons. It would have been nice because he’s an aviator himself and flies helicopters.
He added, “We have got Squadron Leader Ian Blair, who is 90. He’s got the Distinguished Flying Medal (DSM) and that is just as important because people like him are able to talk about the history of aviation itself.”
RIAT media manager Harry Burgoyne said: “He [Evans] was already at RAF Odiham when he was called away. I think it was a private matter.”
A torrential downpour at the launch meant that a Rolls Royce Spitfire was also not flown for safety reasons.
The event was marred further when a volunteer slipped on the wet grass and was taken away on a stretcher with a suspected broken arm.
Mr Blair told how he was forced to fly a Blenheim plane home, untrained, when the pilot collapsed at the wheel during an engagement.
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