Snowbirds were on mission to boost morale
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted about the crash Sunday, saying his thoughts are with “the brave members” of the Royal Canadian Air Force.
“I would also like to thank the emergency personnel in Kamloops who responded so quickly to this tragic incident,” he wrote.
Video footage taken by witnesses shows the crash occurred seconds after two Snowbirds took off from Kamloops Airport, when one of the jets climbed sharply upward before falling to the ground.
Kamloops resident Mike Trafford said he heard the planes taking off and looked out his window to watch. He initially thought one of the pilots was intentionally performing a “barrel roll.”
“My first instinct was, well that’s pretty cool,” he said. But then he saw someone eject from the aircraft and “the plane basically nosedived straight into the ground.”
Trafford said on Saturday the Snowbirds had performed in formation above Kamloops to the delight of many residents.
“Everybody was out on their front lawn, waving at each other, happy and watching these Snowbirds,” he said.
“They’re out here doing this stuff to sort of lift people up and give people hope … And now today it’s shocking, it’s tragic. I don’t really know how else to describe it.”
Josh Ross, who said his home backs onto a house that was hit by the plane, was in his bedroom when he heard a loud spluttering noise.
He and his parents rushed out to the back balcony, where they saw what appeared to be a pilot ejecting from the aircraft and landing hard on a roof nearby.
“The parachute opened, but it didn’t catch, it just kind of spiralled,” he said.
Paul Sivik, who lives about a block away from the site, said he was watching from his rooftop and saw the planes take off from the airport. All of a sudden, he saw one change course and plummet to the ground.
When he walked over to the crash site, he says it smelled like “jet fuel and burning plastic.”
“I feel sad that it happened — as if we don’t have enough sad things happen already,” Sivik said, adding that “2020 is a brutal year so far.”
Kamloops fire Chief Mike Adams said the crash produced a “large amount of debris” over the area of three homes. He said two residents of the home damaged by the plane crash were safe, and that they had been given another place to stay.
Braden Capostinsky said he was on his back deck with his mother and girlfriend when the plane hit the house across the street. “It was just like a bomb had hit,” he said.
Capostinsky said he saw one person eject from the plane, but didn’t think he saw a parachute deploy.
“When they ejected it seemed very late. They were already in a downward spiral, so they didn’t actually shoot up into the air” but instead were propelled horizontally, he said.
He later heard there were two people in the plane, “but I did not see the second one,” he said.
Retired lieutenant-general André Deschamps, who was commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force from 2009 to 2012, said footage of the crash shows that two Snowbirds got off the ground without a problem, and the jets’ landing gear was retracted in preparation for acceleration.
But as the aircraft reached the end of the runway, the pilot of the trailing plane pulled up rapidly in what’s known as a “zoom manoeuvre,” which pilots typically perform to buy themselves time in the air after their plane experiences a serious malfunction.
“The pilot wouldn’t do a zoom for any reason other than serious issues inside the airplane,” Deschamps said.
The pilot didn’t get to a high altitude, forcing an ejection close to the ground. It appeared to Deschamps that two people ejected, but footage he’d seen didn’t show their parachutes deploying. “It was a very lowlevel ejection, so those are very high risk,” he said.
Casey, who was killed in the crash, was based out of Trenton, Ont., after working in radio as a reporter, anchor and producer in her hometown of Halifax and in Belleville, Ont., according to her Royal Canadian Air Force bio.
Casey spent most of 2018 with the CF-18 Demo Team, travelling around North America and the United Kingdom with the NORAD 60 jet. She joined the Snowbirds in November 2018.
The Snowbirds aerobatics team was scheduled to make a trip from Kamloops to Vernon on Sunday as part of Operation Inspiration during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The operation started in Nova Scotia earlier this month and features the team’s signature nine-jet formation. It was aimed at lifting spirits as Canadians continue to struggle with the COVID-19 pandemic.
The start of Sunday’s flight was delayed because of rain and low visibility. The Snowbirds have performed at air shows across Canada and the U.S. for decades and are considered a key tool for raising awareness about — and recruiting for — the Air Force. Eleven aircraft are used during shows, with nine flying and two kept as spares.
The Air Force obtained the Tutor jets flown by the Snowbirds in 1963 and has used them in air demonstrations since1971. Prior to Sunday’s crash, seven pilots and one passenger had been killed and several aircraft had been lost over the course of the Snowbirds’ history. In 2007 Capt. Shawn McCaughey, then Snowbird No. 2, fell out of his seat, lost control of his plane and crashed into a Montana Air Force base. An investigation found a seatbelt failure on the plane contributed to his death.
On Oct. 13, 2019, a Snowbird jet crashed before a scheduled show at the Atlanta Speedway in Georgia. Capt. Kevin Domon-Grenier sustained minor injuries when he ejected from the plane, which crashed into a farmer’s field. No one else was hurt.
Michel Drapeau, a retired army colonel who practises military law after 34 years in the force, said Sunday’s fatal incident should be a wake-up call about the Snowbird program for the Royal Canadian Air Force, especially as it comes on the heels of the deadly helicopter crash in Greece.
“They are the best pilots with the best training; that doesn’t reduce to zero the risk of an accident,” he said. “Especially when we have equipment that is really dated.”
Drapeau said even if the jets flown by the Snowbirds were brand new, he would still question the decision to risk lives of Air Force members for the program. “(Casualties) are always risks on missions,” he said. “But is it worth it? Do we need to do this? For a fleeting moment, even as a spectator, it’s a 20second flypast.”
But Deschamps, the former RCAF commander, said the Tutor jets the Snowbirds use remain very reliable, despite being more than 50 years old. He said the team is an important symbol of the Canadian Forces and he hopes they will perform again once the cause of Sunday’s crash is determined and addressed. The Snowbirds are “an embodiment of what we aspire to as a military,” he said.
In addition to the moraleboosting Snowbird mission, Canadian Forces personnel have been deployed on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic, helping in longterm-care homes in Ontario and Quebec. Several of those members have since tested positive for the virus.
“When they ejected it seemed very late. They were already in a downward spiral, so they didn’t actually shoot up into the air.” BRADEN CAPOSTINSKY WITNESS