Herne Bay air show organisers are yet to decide if they will put the event on again next year after a record crowd watched Sunday’s spectacle.

About 80,000 spectators are estimated to have watched the show between Reculver and Tankerton Slopes, beating last year’s total of 70,000.

But bosses at the BayPromoTeam say they are now going to “pause for breath” before deciding whether to put on the show in 2017.

Scroll down for interview with organiser Gerald McCarthy

The event made national news on Sunday when a Turbulent Display Team plane ditched into the sea, with the pilot miraculously escaping serious injury after spectators, including maths teacher Michael Cox, waded into the water to help him.

Senior organiser Gerald McCarthy said: “We have to decide if it is an annual or every other year thing, but now is not the time because we are in a daze and riding a wave of praise which is great.

“The show is the high point of entertainment, but when something goes wrong, it goes wrong fairly spectacularly.

“It may be better for the future of the event that it is perhaps every other year, but it is too early to say.”

Mr McCarthy said the organising team will need to decide about next year’s event before the end of next month.

He added: “Herne Bay deserves an air show.

“The town almost expects it – the show is like a run away train that people like to see every year.

“We have to just pause for breath and see how we feel.

“We do have deadlines of about the end of September as applications have to go in then for people like the Red Arrows and the Battle of Britain flight which, for me, are key for any air show.”

Mr McCarthy praised Turbulent Display Team pilot Colyn Randall who ditched his plane in the shallows near Bishopstone Glen between Herne Bay and Reculver.

He said: “I cannot give enough praise to the pilot who was able to land in the sea where he did.

“It is a credit to the people of Herne Bay who helped the guy out and he escaped relatively unharmed.

“It is an unfortunate thing, but air shows do throw up these things every now and then – it’s the nature of the beast.”