Did Snowbirds have old ejection seats?
Unknown if military followed through on 2015 modernization plans
The crucial piece of safety equipment that offered the last chance to save the life of Capt. Jenn Casey when she ejected from a Snowbird CT-114 Tutor Jet this month had been targeted for replacement by a much more sophisticated system as far back as 2015, military records show.
Twelve days after the tragedy, the military won’t say whether the Canadian Forces fleet’s ejection seats have yet been replaced, or whether the ejection seats used by Casey and pilot Capt. Richard MacDougall that day were still an outdated technology that the military knew was less effective at saving lives in the flying conditions used by the Snowbirds than more modern systems.
Although the cause of the crash that took place in Kamloops, B.C., moments after the Snowbirds CT-114 Tutor Jet took off is not yet publicly known, one thing is certain: MacDougall and Casey both ejected from the plane, their lives depending on the absolute last resort safety equipment available to them — ejection seats.
While MacDougall survived the ejection, Casey did not. And there is no question that modern ejection seat technology the Department of National Defence planned to place in the Snowbirds fleet offers a greater chance of survival for the kinds of scenarios in which the Snowbirds fly, compared to the older ejection seats originally used in the Tutor jets.
It’s led aviation safety experts across the country to ask the question: Could the jet’s technology have given Casey a better chance of survival?
The Department of Defence did not respond to repeated questions about the state of the ejection seats on the jets first built in 1965.
Ejection seats have a certain set of parameters — called an “envelope” — in which they will work as expected and give the person ejecting the greatest chance for survival.
State of the art ejection seats work in what’s called “zero-zero” conditions, meaning the plane can be at zero altitude, and zero air speed, and the seat will still rocket the occupant high enough in the air for the parachute to open and the occupant to land safely.
Older ejection seats can also save lives, but they work under more limited conditions. The ejection seats original to the Snowbirds jets were manufactured by Weber Aircraft. According to several experts, the seats work from zero altitude if the plane is travelling at a speed of 60 knots. The direction of the plane also influences the effectiveness of the seat, while this is a less important factor with the zero-zero seats.
In the case of the Snowbirds, they are regularly in high-risk circumstances for ejection: They fly at high speeds, close together, at low altitude and perform aerobatics.
“What matters, that most important component of any single-engine, high-speed military aircraft, is that you’ve got to have an ejector seat that will allow the survival of the occupant in the kind of manoeuvres that the plane performs,” said John Pottinger, a longtime aviation safety expert based in Vancouver.
If the Snowbirds are still using the old Weber seats, Pottinger says, “We have not reduced the risk to a level most Canadians would consider acceptable.”
The military has been aware of the aging nature of the CT-114 ejection system, and has expressed a need to replace it as far back as 2015, when the national Defence Department released a report on a project then called the CT-114 Life Extension Beyond 2020.
“The upgrade may include replacing wing components, replacing the ejection seat with a zero/zero capability and improving the wheel breaks to allow operations at remote locations,” the 2015 document reads.
An official record of the project under the Department of National Defence’s investment plan, updated in January makes no mention of ejection seats. In an email, a spokesperson for the department told the Star the project is in the “options analysis” phase. The spokesperson did not respond to repeated questions about whether the ejection seats have been updated as part of the project. Media reports from 2016 showed the military did test an updated ejection seat for the CT-114 Tutor off the back of a Dodge Ram. The Department of Defence did not respond to questions about whether that test led to updates to the Tutor jets.
The defence spokesperson wrote in an email that the intention of the CT-114 Life Extension Beyond 2020 is to update the CT-114 jets so they’re usable until 2030. That’s a change from previous plans detailed by the department in 2012 media reports, which said the 1960s jets would be retired by 2020.
“The CT-114 Tutor aircraft has proven to be a very resilient platform to maintain and upgrade,” a portion of the email reads. “On-aircraft maintenance is done by RCAF technicians from 431 Sqn on a regular basis, and an additional Periodic Inspection is completed by IMP Aerospace every 400 flying hours. This includes further maintenance and repairs to ensure the aircraft remains serviceable for first-line operations.”
Pottinger, who has worked in aviation safety for more than three decades, including time at Transport Canada, said that when it comes to the age of the Snowbirds fleet, the ejection seat is one of the most important safety features to keep upto-date.
He said there are two ways to mitigate risk: You can reduce the risk of the activity itself, and you can reduce the consequences of the risky action. For example, when it comes to driving, stop signs are an example of the first way, while seatbelts are an example of the second.
Flight, especially in a singleengine, high-speed jet performing aerobatics close to the ground, is inherently risky, Pottinger said. So the choices National Defence makes about reducing the consequences of risky activity are especially important.
“You decide: Can you retrofit one of the more modern ejection seats into Tutor jets, or not?”
It’s possible, due to the size and weight of the Tutor jets, that the answer would be “no.” In that case, Pottinger said the military would have to consider the cost of replacing the Tutors with newer jets, or stopping the program altogether. But to him, the risk of carrying on the Snowbirds program with inferior ejection technology is “unacceptable.”
Ejection was also an issue in a Snowbirds crash in October 2019, though it is unclear what went wrong.
An initial investigator report for a crash at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Georgia, when pilot Capt. Kevin Domon-Grenier successfully ejected and survived, states that DomonGrenier reported “anomalies” with the ejection system during the incident.