After taking place in Summerside, P.E.I. the past two years, the Atlantic Canada International Air Show returned to Miramichi, N.B. this weekend.
Thousands turned out to see the impressive aircraft up close as well as to watch some of the country’s best pilots do what they do best.
“It’s really amazing,” Meera, who was attending her first air show, said. “To see the Hercules fly by and to see all the different planes is really interesting for me.”
“I’d like to be a pilot, it would be really amazing to fly all around the world,” she said.
The event is affectionately known as North America’s largest homeless air show because it moves throughout the Maritimes annually. Colin Stephenson, the air show’s executive director, said his team always looks forward to bringing the event to different cities and showing more and more people what they have to offer.
“We’ve got an extensive ground display of aircraft where people can get up close and talk to the pilots,” Stephenson explained. “But you’ve also got locally-owned aircraft and some of the aircraft that work in the Maritime sky everyday.”
Miramichi last hosted the event in 2013 although one of Canada’s favourite aerial acts wasn’t featured.
This year though, the Snowbirds returned to the show which made for an extra-special homecoming for one longstanding team member.
“I’ve been in the air force 34 years and this is my last year,”Snowbirds Squadron Chief Alan Blakney, originally from Petitcodiac, said. “To come back here with the Snowbirds, have some of my family up, it’s been really an awesome honour for me.”
No host city has been announced yet for the 2017 edition but organizers say they hope to have that detail worked out in the coming weeks.
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