The U.S. Navy Blue Angels landed at Republic Airport in East Farmingdale on Wednesday, drawing hundreds of onlookers ahead of the FourLeaf Air Show at Jones Beach. The flight team will headline the Jones Beach Air Show this weekend after a low pass over business parks and shopping malls, a formation flyby and individual landings that brought the crowd in close.
The arrival is the start of a busy holiday-weekend show that runs from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday and Monday. The Blue Angels will headline it for the 11th time, and the roster also includes the Royal Canadian Air Force's Snow Birds.
For many families, the landing was the point of the whole trip. Kimberly Rinyu said she would be at Republic Airport all weekend and brought her school-age children to see the Blue Angels for the first time. Gabrielle Maccarino also brought her children to the outside of Republic Airport's main terminal to watch the jets come in.
The show usually serves as an unofficial kickoff to summer over Memorial Day weekend, but it moved to the July Fourth weekend this year as a tribute to the nation's semiquincentennial. That shift gives the crowd a different kind of holiday backdrop, even as the draw remains the same: the chance to watch the Blue Angels up close as they take off and land.
That closeness is part of why the scene felt personal on Wednesday. Navy Lt. Chris Houben, Blue Angel No. 3, said arriving at Republic Airport always feels like home, and crew chief Cody Farrell of Mastic Beach called being back on Long Island an absolute honor and privilege. For Kathleen Farrell, it was a reminder that the team is more than an air show act; it is a family connection that means a great deal. The next test is simple: whether Sunday and Monday can match the pull of the arrival, when the jets were already the main event before the gates even opened.
