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Snowbird Jet Crashes Into House in Kamloops- May 17 2020

I hope everyone is okay.  Mods - maybe 'tweak' the thread title some?

Article Link

Snowbird jet crashes into house in Kamloops

There is smoke rising from the crash site as emergency vehicles descend on the area. There are reports the plane hit a house and that the pilot managed to eject before the jet crashed.

Two jets took off from Kamloops Airport at about 11:30 a.m., bound for Comox, when one rose, then circled and crashed in an area near Glenview Avenue. There are reports the plane hit a house on that street and that the pilot managed to eject before the jet crashed.

There is smoke rising from the crash site as emergency vehicles descend on the area. The house is on fire.

The pilot landed on the roof of a house on nearby Schreiner Street.

Gurjit Sidhu witnessed the crash and told KTW a pilot was seen on the roof of a house, reportedly with back and/or neck injuries. 

"I just saw, in the sky, something falling. I saw a pilot ejected, then I heard a big noise, like a bomb,” Sidhu said.

Another witness, a Kamloops man who did not wish to have his name published, said he was at the airport for an hour before the crash to watch the Snowbirds squadron take off as they were to continue their cross-Canada tour by heading to Vancouver lsland.

He said two jets took off together and all looked normal as they rose above the airport.

“All of a sudden, one of the planes suddenly went up, straight up, quite high, then it started dropping and doing a barrel roll,” he said. “It did a few spirals and I saw the ejector seat pop out. Then I saw a big fireball, an explosion.”

He said those watching the planes take off initially did not realize anything was wrong as the one Snowbird began climbing vertically, then descended with barrel rolls.

“We thought it was going to do some kind of cool trick,” he said. “It was incredible. I can’t believe I saw it.

Kamloops resident Rob McCaskill was at the Brock Shopping Centre when he spotted two of the jets taking off from the Kamloops Airport. He said he saw the two jets part in different directions not long after leaving the ground. He looked  away and then shortly afterwards, heard a 'pop' sound.

There is a short video at this The Free Press article;  it does look like 2 objects separating from the canopy area during a brief 'wings level' period.
 
Links to video's of the take-off and crash are coming out really quickly.  Language in second one is not for your kids learning new words.

Video 1

Video 2
 
https://twitter.com/CFSnowbirds/status/1262120495266304000?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Hoping for news that all involved are safe and uninjured.

 
Really low on the ejection, what's the minimum altitude for ejection seats to have the chute fully open?
 
PuckChaser said:
Really low on the ejection, what's the minimum altitude for ejection seats to have the chute fully open?

Someone I know who worked on the tech side told me 60’ at 60 knots, but that would presumably be level flight. It looks like both seats fired downwards.
 
CloudCover said:
They have him off the roof, he is alive.

CTV is reporting the pilot is in hospital but no word on condition. Hopefully no one was in the home at the time.
 
MilEME09 said:
CTV is reporting the pilot is in hospital but no word on condition. Hopefully no one was in the home at the time.

Eyewitnesses have it hitting a detached garage. House damaged, couple inside exited safely.
 
Brihard said:
Eyewitnesses have it hitting a detached garage. House damaged, couple inside exited safely.

Saw pictures that I will not repost out of respect to the pilot, but the pilot landed on the roof of a house, multiple paramedics attending. Pictures looked fairly calm and methodical, but I will not speculate on the pilots condition, though I hope for the best.
 
Brihard said:
It looks like both seats fired downwards.

I think the aircraft was in very steep dive/pitch, but it looks to me like the canopy was facing "up" (the tail in the attached pic).

 

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Aircraft seats two, and there are two separations in the video.  We have nothing to be able to state that that individual was the pilot at this time.
 
Gentle reminder regarding avoidance of speculation.

Discussion of factual (publicly available), non-sensitive information is fair, but be mindful of respecting official reports from DND/RCAF.

Milnet.ca Staff
 
I hope the pilot and all those involved are healthy and no worse for wear.

I'll second the thought that 2020 just does not stop swinging, even though we are down :(

Abdullah
 
Not confirmed, but nurse on site reports female occupant has died. male occupant landed on roof nearby.
 
Would both seats fire if there was only 1 pilot, or is the 2nd seat deactivated if there is no occupant?
 
Anyone have accurate numbers of how many Tutors we have left? I have read 22 with more in storage but I don't know how accurate that is.
 
EDIT: This (below) is incorrect.  Look for SupersonicMx's comment further down for correct information.

I think in two seat a/c either occupant triggering the eject sequence is supposed to automatically fire both seats out.
 
dapaterson said:
I think in two seat a/c either occupant triggering the eject sequence is supposed to automatically fire both seats out.
I’m not familiar with the tutor but the Harvard 2 has a toggle switch for firing 1 or both. It’s been a while, but I’m pretty sure we kept it in Solo on the ground and switched to Dual just before taking the runway.
 
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