POMPANO BEACH, FLA. (WSVN) - A Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School teacher is getting set to soar with some pilots ahead of the Fort Lauderdale Air Show this weekend.
The world known GEICO Skytypers Air Show Team broke out of formation during a practice run just days before the Fort Lauderdale Air Show is set to take place this Saturday and Sunday.
“We’ll have a mix of military and civilian performers that will provide lots of thrills and spills to the hundreds of thousands of people that we’re expecting to line the beaches,” said Chris Dirato with the Air Show.
The GEICO Skytypers wanted to honor the victims and survivors of the Stoneman Douglas shooting. That includes teachers like Ivy Schamis, who was teaching a lesson on the Holocaust when the shooting began at Stoneman Douglas on Feb. 14.
The performers hosted Schamis for a flight, Thursday.
“Very excited about it, very excited,” she said. “I’m nervous, but I’m excited.”
She told 7News what happened the moment they heard gunfire at school. “We had seconds to run and try to hide,” she said. “It wasn’t easy. There’s no place to really hide. We were all hovering in the perimeter of the classroom when the gunman shot into the glass panel of our classroom door, randomly shooting at students and he injured, I believe, four students. He killed Nicholas Dworet and Helena Ramsey.”
Schamis said she feels that life is short and wanted to jump at the opportunity to fly.
“When this came, I thought this would be great,” Schamis said. “Especially since I teach social studies, who would not want to fly in a World War II plane?”
The Skytypers is just one of the acts that are scheduled to perform at the show. The F/A-18 Super Hornets will also be on hand.
“We can go upwards of 750 miles per hour,” said U.S. Navy pilot Lt. Jeff Mayer. “We talk about in terms of the sound of speed, so a mock number, mock 1.0 would be the speed of sound, and we’re gonna go just under that because if we did break the sound barrier, it would actually shatter all the windows on the ocean front. We’d get in a lot of trouble.”
The show is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday from noon to 3 p.m.
Northbound and southbound A1A will be closed to traffic from Sunrise to Northeast 14th Court. There will be limited access for residents.
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