Coronavirus Tribute Airshow Goes Wrong
In early 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic spread all over the world.
As a gesture to lift the population's spirits, the Canadian government deployed their Snowbirds aerobatics team to fly across the country. But their effort would end in tragedy.
On May 17, 2020, two Canadair CT-114 Tuto training jets departed from Kamloops, British Columbia, but one of them unexpectedly crashed shortly after takeoff.
Although the two pilots successfully ejected before the airplane burst into flames, it was too late for the pilots, Captain Jenn Casey and Captain Richard MacDougal, to fully recover.
Witnesses of the crash later told media outlets that one of the parachutes never completely opened. This raised questions on the faulty safety measures of the Canadian Air Force fleet. To this day, no clear answers have been given.
Military analysts went on to say that a bird strike caused the crash. Other experts blamed the aging aircraft, which had experienced complications before.
But no one still really knows exactly what happened.