EvanL
05-15-2004, 02:09 PM
MOOSE JAW, Sask. (CP) - Two pilots safely ejected when a small training jet crashed near Moose Jaw's military base Friday afternoon.
Eyewitnesses reported seeing two parachutes deploy before the CT-155 Hawk hit the ground just northwest of 15 Wing Moose Jaw. Base commander Col. Alain Boyer said a student pilot from the United Kingdom, working under a Canadian instructor, was practising a manoeuvre called a touch-and-go.
"It's an aircraft that's just doing landing and takeoff, all in one motion," Boyer told a news conference. "During one of these touch-and-gos, something went wrong."
Eyewitness Kendal McLean, who was first on the scene, told the Moose Jaw Times-Herald that one of the pilots told him they hit a bird in the air and couldn't restart their engine.
"There was a burst of flames and there wasn't a whole lot left after," McLean said of the wreckage. "Everything had exploded."
He said one of the pilots suffered a broken leg.
"I watched him land, and he was kind of spinning," said McLean, who estimated the crash took place about 45 metres from an automotive service shop.
"I just heard a big boom," said Wayne Thiessen, owner of Thiessen Automotive Machine. "It sounded like thunder."
The base is located about five kilometres south of Moose Jaw's city limits.
"We were out in the yard and we looked over and we could see some smoke," Thiessen told the Times-Herald. "We stepped into the clearing and I could see that a plane had crashed."
By that time, emergency vehicles were coming out to the scene.
Dozens of workers in orange jump suits scoured a square-kilometre of field for pieces of the wreckage.
A large yellow airport rescue truck was parked between the two largest pieces of the plane.
Boyer said the Hawk, which costs $25 million, was "a total loss."
Capt. Jay Walker, the base communications officer, confirmed the crash occurred about 4:30 p.m. CT.
"The pilots are fine, they're at the hospital right now," Walker said. "That's the main thing, of course."
He said their injuries were not serious and they would be going home sometime in the next couple of days. Their names were not released.
Walker said the Hawk is used for advanced jet pilot training at the NATO Flight Training in Canada program, which trains pilots from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy, Hungary and Singapore as well as Canada.
Boyer said all trainer jets at the base will be grounded over the weekend while the investigation continues. He said the aim is to have the probe wrapped up by Monday.
Last July, a student pilot at the training centre was shaken up after he brought his Hawk trainer in for a belly landing at the base.
Officials at the base said for some reason the plane's landing gear was not down properly. The foreign pilot did not advise the control tower of the emergency.
For more than 37 years, Tutor jets were used for such training but they were replaced by Harvard II planes and Hawk jets in 2000.
In August 2000, the Moose Jaw base also saw an emergency landing of a Harvard II turboprop plane after an engine malfunctioned.
Two instructor pilots who were flying the plane landed the craft without injury or damage.
The NATO Flying Training in Canada program, a partnership between the military and the private sector, was formed as a way of keeping the base open in the face of military budget cuts in the late 1990s.
The initial corporate partner, Bombardier Inc., indicated in April it is selling off its $2.5-billion long-term training contract with the military.
In addition to Moose Jaw, that will affect operations in Portage la Prairie, Man., and Cold Lake, Alta.
The sale is part of a corporate restructuring.
TIM COOK
Eyewitnesses reported seeing two parachutes deploy before the CT-155 Hawk hit the ground just northwest of 15 Wing Moose Jaw. Base commander Col. Alain Boyer said a student pilot from the United Kingdom, working under a Canadian instructor, was practising a manoeuvre called a touch-and-go.
"It's an aircraft that's just doing landing and takeoff, all in one motion," Boyer told a news conference. "During one of these touch-and-gos, something went wrong."
Eyewitness Kendal McLean, who was first on the scene, told the Moose Jaw Times-Herald that one of the pilots told him they hit a bird in the air and couldn't restart their engine.
"There was a burst of flames and there wasn't a whole lot left after," McLean said of the wreckage. "Everything had exploded."
He said one of the pilots suffered a broken leg.
"I watched him land, and he was kind of spinning," said McLean, who estimated the crash took place about 45 metres from an automotive service shop.
"I just heard a big boom," said Wayne Thiessen, owner of Thiessen Automotive Machine. "It sounded like thunder."
The base is located about five kilometres south of Moose Jaw's city limits.
"We were out in the yard and we looked over and we could see some smoke," Thiessen told the Times-Herald. "We stepped into the clearing and I could see that a plane had crashed."
By that time, emergency vehicles were coming out to the scene.
Dozens of workers in orange jump suits scoured a square-kilometre of field for pieces of the wreckage.
A large yellow airport rescue truck was parked between the two largest pieces of the plane.
Boyer said the Hawk, which costs $25 million, was "a total loss."
Capt. Jay Walker, the base communications officer, confirmed the crash occurred about 4:30 p.m. CT.
"The pilots are fine, they're at the hospital right now," Walker said. "That's the main thing, of course."
He said their injuries were not serious and they would be going home sometime in the next couple of days. Their names were not released.
Walker said the Hawk is used for advanced jet pilot training at the NATO Flight Training in Canada program, which trains pilots from the United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy, Hungary and Singapore as well as Canada.
Boyer said all trainer jets at the base will be grounded over the weekend while the investigation continues. He said the aim is to have the probe wrapped up by Monday.
Last July, a student pilot at the training centre was shaken up after he brought his Hawk trainer in for a belly landing at the base.
Officials at the base said for some reason the plane's landing gear was not down properly. The foreign pilot did not advise the control tower of the emergency.
For more than 37 years, Tutor jets were used for such training but they were replaced by Harvard II planes and Hawk jets in 2000.
In August 2000, the Moose Jaw base also saw an emergency landing of a Harvard II turboprop plane after an engine malfunctioned.
Two instructor pilots who were flying the plane landed the craft without injury or damage.
The NATO Flying Training in Canada program, a partnership between the military and the private sector, was formed as a way of keeping the base open in the face of military budget cuts in the late 1990s.
The initial corporate partner, Bombardier Inc., indicated in April it is selling off its $2.5-billion long-term training contract with the military.
In addition to Moose Jaw, that will affect operations in Portage la Prairie, Man., and Cold Lake, Alta.
The sale is part of a corporate restructuring.
TIM COOK