The RAF has missed a trick with this flypast [Wikimedia Commons Ogl Detail]

• “RAF’s missed opportunity” is the heading on a letter from your correspondent, Lester May, (June 2) concerning the flypast, and he is right.

But the poor public relations goes further. The Royal Air Force will spend a fortune on well-presented television recruitment advertisements, but when an opportunity occurs possibly to save a crashed and drowning footballer, Emiliano Sala, they do nothing despite a dozen tweets to RAF Waddington to send an unmanned photographic drone which could upload images to the net which we all could volunteer to scrutinise in the style of the late Tomnod site.

When there is a desperate rush to sign Brexit papers after a Commons vote and get them to Brussels before the 11pm deadline, how much more PR benefit (and fun for TV viewers) would there be to have their new F-35 vertical take-off aircraft parked on College Green ready for the dash to Strasbourg which would take as much time as it takes to make a piece of toast? (The journalists below might have grumbled about the stench of paraffin in their clothes but that is a price we can pay.)

The RAF probably wouldn’t have saved Cardiff’s new striker in 2019 but the next time something like that happens they might succeed. Either way the publicity would have been of benefit. Their PR department needs a shake up.

PETER RUTHERFORD, NW6