One day after her tragic death, the public affairs officer for the Canadian Forces Snowbirds was remembered by the team’s commanding officer while discussing the accident that took her life and seriously injured a pilot with the flying team.
Lieutenant-Colonel Mike French says Captain Jennifer Casey was someone who embraced every aspect of being a Snowbird since joining the team in 2018.
“She absolutely loved this job, and it was one of the main reasons why Operation: Inspiration had been so well-received by the public.” French said at 15 Wing on Monday afternoon. “Her loss is a serious blow. Not only to our team, but to the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Armed Forces as a whole.”
Casey and Captain Richard McDougall were in a Snowbirds jet that had just taken off from the airport in Kamloops, B.C, when something went wrong. Video shows the plane appeared to be doubling back before falling from the sky into a house with both Casey and McDougall ejecting from a low distance to the ground. McDougall is in hospital in serious condition with injuries said to be not life-threatening.
French would not speculate on the cause of the crash, but insisted that safety is the Snowbirds’ number one priority.
As for “Operation Inspiration”, French says the mission which saw the Snowbirds fly over Saskatchewan last week has obviously been put on hold.
An investigation into what happened has already started with French saying it could take a year before it is completed.
Before Sunday’s crash, seven pilots and one passenger had been killed and several aircraft had been lost over the course of the Snowbirds’ history with the last incident before this one happening in October 2019 when a pilot safely ejected before his plane crashed in a field in Georgia. The last deaths involving members of the Snowbirds happened in 2008 when Captain Bryan Mitchell and photographer Sergeant Charles Senecal were killed when their plane crashed in a farmer’s field near 15 Wing Moose Jaw.
