PORT BURWELL, Ontario — Two jets from Canada’s military aerobatic team collided Thursday, sending one crashing into Lake Erie as the pilot and a passenger ejected.
Both survivors were pulled alive from the water, said Capt. Barry Tolmie of the military rescue coordination center at Canadian Forces Base Trenton. The other jet landed safely.
One of the two survivors was in good condition, said Nancy Lawrence of the London Health Sciences Center. The other was injured more severely but was awake and alert.
Capt. Keith Hoey of the rescue center said the planes from the Snowbirds aerobatic team hit each other while flying in a formation of nine aircraft over Port Burwell, Ontario, 120 miles southwest of Toronto and 50 miles across Lake Erie from Erie, Pa.
Hoey said the Snowbirds usually have only a pilot on board, but the one that crashed had a passenger riding along as part of “media day” activities before a weekend air show at the London, Ontario, international airport.
Witness Doug Wall said he was working on his farm when he saw the collision.
“There was a large fire ball and lots of black smoke, and then immediately after, that’s when I saw the parachute and the plane immediately dropped,” Wall told CTV news.
A television reporter on one of the other jets described the frantic radio traffic as the plane went down.
“It was very surreal,” said CFPL’s Kathy Mueller. “It was almost an `I can’t believe this is happening’ kind of thing, when you hear the term, `Mayday, Mayday,’ and `We’ve got a plane in the water.”
The other eight airplanes landed safely, the military said.
The Snowbirds are Canada’s version of the U.S. Blue Angels. Best known for flying their CT-114 Tutors — a Canadian-made jet trainer— in nine-plane formations trailing smoke, the Snowbirds perform scores of shows each year.
The show was to feature other Canadian Forces planes, as well as U.S. aircraft.
Four Snowbird pilots have been killed in previous accidents, three during air shows and another during a training mission.
In September, two of the Snowbird jets were slightly damaged when the wing of one aircraft grazed the tail of another as they were on the way to the Canadian International Air Show. The pilots were not injured, and both planes landed safely.
