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Flight plans released: Here’s where the Blue Angels, Thunderbirds will fly today

ATLANTA — An aerial salute is ahead today for the all the frontline heroes in the fight against the coronavirus.

The Air Force Thunderbirds and Navy Blue Angels will fly over metro Atlanta, putting on a show to pay tribute to those keeping us safe.

Earlier this week, they did precision flyovers in New York and Philadelphia to honor front line responders in the fight against COVID-19. That includes doctors, nurses, healthcare workers, paramedics, police and firefighters, just to name a few. They are the people that put their lives on the line every day.

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On Saturday, the Thunderbirds and Blue Angels will put on a joint precision flying show over Atlanta.

The show will include a dozen high-performance fighter jets that fly at speeds of up to 700 mph, sometimes within a few feet of each other.

They will begin in Baltimore Saturday morning then fly to Washington D.C. and finish up in Atlanta. Here is the flight path:

The “America Strong” tour will continue in several other cities over the next several weeks.

“It’s about the medical workers. It’s about us as a country all coming together to support them,” said Air Force Slot Pilot Maj. Zane J. Taylor, who will take part in Saturday’s flyover. “We want people to be able to walk outside, to look up and to feel that sense of our country coming together, and then they can go right back to adhering to all those social distancing guidelines and CDC advice."

Taylor said a lot of planning was put into the flyover so that the most people would be able to benefit.

“We do a lot of extensive planning to make the route fly through as many areas as possible,” he said.

The metro Atlanta flyover is set to begin at 1:35 p.m. and last about 25 minutes. They will start in the north metro and do a few loops before exiting over the southwest metro.

Many people are already looking forward to the show.

“I appreciate what they’re doing. That’s part of America. What they’re doing, the two of the best flight teams in the world, they’re getting some good airtime, and I think it’s a good thing,” Blue Angels fan Roger Hodges said.