Thunderbirds entertain the crowd and set off car alarms

COLUMBUS, Mississippi--The clouds rolled in but that didn't stop the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds for entertaining a large crowd at the "Wings Over Columbus" Open House and Air Show at Columbus Air Force Base.

The pilots flew six F-16C "Fighting Falcon" jets through a series of precise maneuvers often with their wingtips nearly overlapping. The solo pilots flew several head-on passes at a closing speed of nearly 1,200 mph. They also managed to sneak up on the crowd a couple of times with the noise of their jet engines causing people to gasp and car alarms to go off.

Earlier, civilian pilots flew various vintage aircraft including a rare P-38 "Lightning." Others flew aerobatic routines leaving smoky trails across the sky. Greg Koontz and the Alabama Boys from Ashville made the crowd laugh with a comedy flight routine that ended with Koontz landing a Piper J3C "Cub" on the back of a moving truck.

The entire show will be repeated Sunday if the weather cooperates.

See this early story U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds perform near Alabama this weekend for more details on the event.

Story and photo gallery:   http://blog.al.com