One crew member dead as Canadian forces' Snowbirds jet crashes in British Columbia
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2 minutes
An
RCMP office walks in front of the tail wreckage from a Royal Canadian
Air Force Snowbirds jet after a member of the exhibition team crashed
shortly after takeoff in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada May 17,
2020. REUTERS/Dennis Owen
(Reuters)
- A jet from the Canadian air force’s Snowbirds aerobatics team that
was on a tour to lift spirits during the coronavirus outbreak crashed in
Kamloops, British Columbia, on Sunday, killing one crew member and
seriously injuring the other, defense officials said.
Video shot
by a witness showed two of the team’s Canadair Tutor single-engine
aircraft taking off. One of the planes reared up almost immediately
before plunging to the ground, exploding just after the pilot ejected.
“One
member of the Canadian Forces’ Snowbirds team has died and one has
sustained serious injuries,” the armed forces said on Twitter.
Witnesses and officials said earlier that at least one person was injured.
Officials
in Kamloops - about 320 km (200 miles) northeast of Vancouver in the
West Coast Canadian province - said the jet had hit a residential home,
sparking a fire.
A photo posted by local television station CFJC
showed at least one house on fire in the Brocklehurst area of Kamloops, a
city with a population of more than 90,000.
Federal Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said in a tweet that he was deeply saddened by news of the crash.
It
was the second recent accident involving the Snowbirds. One of the
team’s jets crashed into an unpopulated area last October before a show
in Atlanta, after the pilot ejected.
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