KAMLOOPS, B.C. — A single Snowbird plane has crashed into a Kamloops home a couple of blocks from the airport.
The Royal Canadian Air Force confirmed one member of the Snowbirds team has died and one has sustained serious injuries.
The fatal victim of the Snowbirds crash in Kamloops has been identified as Capt. Jennifer Casey, sources have confirmed to Castanet News. She was the public relations officer for the military aerobatics demonstration team.
The plane was on its way to Comox, B.C. the afternoon of May 17 as a part of their cross-Canada tour, Operation Inspiration.
"Oh, [it was] a big boom, a big boom!" said Grant Mcinnes, who saw the tragic event unfold.
"The two planes took off together, they climbed – I don't know how high – the one really climbed and the other one started to spin and then boom. I didn't see the pilot bail out but he bailed out late apparently."
Kim Maloney tells Castanet that about 30 minutes ago she heard the Snowbirds flying over her house and she decided to head out to watch them take-off when she heard "an earth shaking bang and instantly smoke."
Fellow neighbour Tammy Franzman was outside doing something and saw the two planes loop around. Once she noticed one crashed she called 911 but couldn't get through because it was busy.
The plane hit the home across the street from 22-year-old Braden Capostinsky's residence.
“It was like out of a movie. You look up and you see it's coming really quick in your direction and I said 'Holy F, holy F,' and turned,” he told Castanet, just two hours later. “Once I saw the plane shield come off and the pilot eject I just turned and grabbed my mom and girlfriend and waited for the boom.”
Pieces of the plane skidded across the road, tearing down power lines and setting small patches of lawn ablaze. The home that was initially struck caught fire, but miraculously, no one was inside at the time.
“[It was] very chaotic. There was some screaming... people were just freaking out, not sure what happened,” Capostinsky said. “Some people thought they were getting bombed so they didn't know if there was more coming, so they were actually running. It was crazy.”
Capostinsky, a former wildfire firefighter, quickly grabbed his neighbour's hose and began dousing some spot fires, while keeping people clear of the downed power lines.
When he first saw the plane coming towards his neighbourhood, Capostinsky could clearly see the pilot eject from the plane as it was already nose diving towards the ground.
“So he didn't really shoot up, he kind of shot out and forward, and he ended up [on a roof] behind my house,” Capostinsky said. “I'm not 100 per cent sure what happened with the pilot. I could see him on the roof actually from my back deck where he landed. I saw paramedics up there with him and it didn't look like it was going great.”
The Snowbirds were supposed to fly over B.C.'s Thompson-Okanagan region this morning but due to a weather advisory they cancelled their flight.
Kamloops Mayor Ken Christian says the military has informed the city that an investigation team is on its way.
"In the meantime, the birds are grounded here in Kamloops and we have extended everything that the City of Kamloops and Kamloops Airport can do for the Snowbirds team while they are here."
He noted the crash site will be closed off until military personnel conduct their investigation.
Casey's biography says she joined the Canadian Armed Forces in August 2014 as a direct entry officer. Prior to joining she spent several years working in broadcast radio as a reporter, anchor, and producer in both Halifax, NS and Belleville, ON.
She joined the Snowbirds in November 2018.
Written with files by Tereza Verenca and Brendan Kergin
Castanet Kamloops is on the scene, updating as information become available
