A former Snowbirds commander and team member say even though the planes the team flies — the Canadian-built CT-114 Tutors — are close to 60 years old, they have no concerns about their safety.
“There isn’t a better jet that exists today to be able to do the Snowbirds’ mission and I really feel strongly about that,” says Robert Mitchell, who led the team in 2007 and 2008.
The former Snowbirds commander says the team’s alumni are pulling together to support the current team after one member died and another was injured in a crash in Kamloops on Sunday. It is not yet known what caused the plane to fall from the sky.
Mitchell, however, is well aware of the previous tragedies that have befallen the Snowbirds.
‘Shared horror’
In his first year as commander, just before the first performance of 2007, his second pilot, Capt. Shawn McCaughey of Quebec, died in a crash.
McCaughey was practising for an air show at the Malmstrom Air Force Base in northern Montana.
A military report later concluded that McCaughey’s seatbelt came unfastened as he was steering his plane through a roll, causing him to fall out of his seat and lose control of the plane.
“I can’t help but think about my teams in 2007 when there was a crash … that shared horror,” he said on Sunday from his home in North Vancouver.
Robert Mitchell said though that he has never doubted the utility of the Tutor jets and although it has yet to be determined what caused this latest crash, Mitchell believes the planes are safe and should continue to be flown.
“The age of plane is somewhat irrelevant because if the airplane and the components of the airplane are kept up to date then there really is no question,” he said.
Mitchell said the planes undergo a rigorous maintenance program.
“The airplane is almost entirely disassembled and rebuilt up and so I never had any question about the airplanes.”
That confidence has not been unequivocally shared though as reports from Ottawa show a desire for a plan to replace the planes, eventually.
The 1960s-era jets were set to retire in 2010, but that date was extended 10 years, despite an internal 2003 report that warned of escalating technical, safety and financial risks and urged the fleet be replaced “immediately.”
A report from the fall of 2014 cleared the fleet as “technically airworthy,” but noted “significant” concerns, including some caused by financial restraints.
In 2016, the Department of National Defence studied the feasibility of keeping the Canadian-built CT-114 Tutors in operation until 2025 and 2030, despite some “significant concerns” about the aircraft.
David McNair, a former member of the air force who also worked as an investigator for the Transportation Safety Board, says the plane is robust and that there are even older planes being flown in Canada successfully, but not like the Tutors.
“There are planes around that are older, but typically those planes aren’t subjected to a lot of vertical forces,” he said. “It’s a difficult thing to maintain an airplane that’s getting older.”
One of the major obstacles to replacing the planes outright is cost. A procurement tender from 2015 put the cost between $500 million and $1.5 billion.
‘We all know the risks’
Mark Miller, who has worked with the team to make documentaries about the program, said the latest crash is another shock to the Snowbirds community. There have been seven pilots and one passenger killed, as well as several aircraft lost over the course of the Snowbirds’ history.
But like Mitchell, Miller also believes in the planes, how well they are maintained, and that pilots will continue to safely fly them.
“Aviation is a funny business … we all know the risks, we all know the dangers, yet we all still strap into airplanes and we all go flying knowing that. It brings about a tremendous amount of joy.”
Watch Mark Miller argue why age is not important when it comes to the Snowbirds’ Tutor jets: