Canadian Air Force jet celebrating coronavirus front-line workers crashes into home
The Royal Canadian Air Force said a Snowbirds plane — Canada’s equivalent of the US Navy’s Blue Angels — went down in Kamloops, northeast of Vancouver.
One person was in the hospital after paramedics and air ambulances responded to the crash, British Columbia Health Minister Adrian Dix said.
Video posted on social media showed two Snowbirds taking off together and veering into the sky — when, seconds later, one of them rolled over and spiraled down to the ground.
The footage appears to show at least one person ejecting from the aircraft, before it disappears behind trees and an explosion can be heard.
Kerri Turatus, who lives in the neighborhood where the plane went down, told NBC News that the plane hit a house, engulfing it in flames. It wasn’t clear if anyone was home at the time.
It “sounded like a gunshot outside my window,” said Turatus, 30.
There was wreckage strewn in the street and a wing sticking out of her neighbor’s garage, she said.
Another neighbor, Kenny Hinds, said he saw a parachute about 20 feet above the house.
“I heard ‘bang, bang,’ and just as I looked before it left my view from the house beside me, I saw the Snowbird going straight down,” he said.
“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.”
The flight had been part of the cross-country “Operation Inspiration,” which launched April 29 in Nova Scotia to boost morale and celebrate first responders and healthcare workers amid the pandemic.
With Post wires
