As shock waves ripple across the country from the loss of Capt. Jenn Casey in the CF Snowbirds crash in Kamloops on Sunday, a Kelowna pilot is organizing a flyover to finish the Okanagan loop in her honour.
Casey, a public affairs officer with the Snowbirds, died in the crash, while the pilot, Capt. Richard MacDougall, sustained serious injuries, the Canadian Armed Forces said in a statement.
The Snowbirds, on a cross-country tour to raise the spirits of Canadians during the COVID-19 pandemic and honour frontline workers, were scheduled to fly over the Okanagan on Sunday morning, but the flight was postponed due to poor weather.
The Snowbirds planned to return to the Comox base when the jet took off from the Kamloops airport just before noon. Witnesses say the aircraft veered upwards before going into a nosedive and plunging to the ground.
Video of the incident appears to show two people ejecting from the jet seconds before the plane crashed into a home on Glenview Avenue in the Brocklehurst neighbourhood of Kamloops.
MacDougall landed on the roof of another home, sustaining serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Casey was killed.
Trevor Jones, 21, said at least a dozen private planes will fly over the Kelowna area in a line formation on Monday afternoon.
“We are trying to finish what they started and inspire people in the Okanagan and Kelowna in light of COVID-19, try to bring some hope and happiness to people,” he said.
“We are going to head downtown, I’m going to have two floatplanes from Air Hart Aviation join up with us and we are going to do two low and overs downtown, like a figure eight, we are going to fly over the bridge, fly by Bear Creek and do one low pass by Knox Mountain and turn back around Manteo Resort.”
He said the memorial flyover will occur at 1 p.m., weather dependent.
Another mass flyover is planned for Monday night, taking off from the Abbotsford, B.C., airport.
The fleet of Snowbirds aircraft — the CT-114 Tutor — has been placed on “operational pause,” according to a CAF statement Sunday night.