KAMLOOPS, British Columbia -- A Canadian aerobatic jet crashed into a British Columbia neighborhood Sunday during a flyover intended to boost morale during the pandemic, killing one crew member, seriously injuring another and setting a house on fire. Video appeared to show the plane's crew ejecting.
The crash left debris scattered across the neighborhood near the airport in the city of Kamloops, 260 miles northeast of Vancouver. Canada's defense department said emergency crews were responding. The Snowbirds are Canada's equivalent of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds or U.S. Navy's Blue Angels.
"It is with heavy hearts that we announce that one member of the CF Snowbirds team has died and one has sustained serious injuries," the Royal Canadian Air Force said in a tweet. The air force said the surviving member does not have life-threatening injuries.
A senior government official identified the deceased as Capt. Jennifer Casey, who served as a spokesperson for the Snowbirds. The official was not authorized to speak ahead of the announcement of her death and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Video posted to Twitter appears to show two Snowbirds taking off from Kamloops Airport. One of the aircraft subsequently climbed into the sky before rolling over and plunging to the ground. The video appears to show at least one person ejecting from the plane before it disappears behind a stand of trees and an explosion is heard.
A local resident who lives seven houses from the crash site and had been watching the aircraft said he saw "the Snowbird going straight down."
"I saw what looked like a parachute about, say, 20 feet over the house, and it disappeared from sight, and the parachute hadn't fully deployed yet -- it was still sort of straight up and down," Kenny Hinds said.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the cause of the crash is under investigation.
Rose Miller lives directly across the street from where the plane hit. She'd watched the Snowbirds arrive on Saturday, and she went to her front window on Sunday when she heard the roar of jet engines.
"It looked to me like it was mostly on the road, but it just exploded. It went everywhere," she said. "In fact, I got a big, huge piece in my backyard. The cops said it was the ejection seat."
Operation Inspiration started in Nova Scotia earlier this month and features the team's signature nine-jet formation. It was aimed at boosting morale amid the pandemic.
Sunday's crash follows the downing of another Snowbird in the U.S. state of Georgia last October, where the team was scheduled to perform in an air show. Capt. Kevin Domon-Grenier suffered minor injuries when he ejected from the plane, which crashed into a farmer's field. No one else was hurt.
A Section on 05/18/2020