First responders were called to the North Peace Regional Airport in Fort St. John, B.C., on Tuesday afternoon to respond to what officials are describing as an "aviation incident."

In a social media post, the Fort St. John International Air Show said the aircraft went down during takeoff.

Canadian Armed Forces Public Affairs Officer Major Trevor Reid confirmed Tuesday an incident occurred involving the CT-114 Tutor aircraft.

The jet, which had completed a weekend show in the remote city in the northeastern part of the province, apparently stalled on takeoff, a defence source told CBC's Murray Brewster.

The pilot managed to turn the jet around, return to the airfield and landed, but the aircraft blew past the end of the runway, said the source, who was familiar with the accident but not authorized to speak publicly.

cumulushumilis wrote:

A few colleagues are ex snowbird team members, the consensus among them is that best replacement aircraft is an upgraded Tutor (new engine, avionics and ejection systems). The airframe is solid, and has lots of time left.

Snowbirds don’t need fast loud jets. Their mount is perfectly fine for the type of flying they do as it is definitely a pilots aircraft and well suited to precision aerobatics. A tutor NG would work fine.

ramair wrote:

My concern is that sooner rather than latter the RCAF will pull the plug on the Snowbirds altogether. At what point does a country, that opted to buy used Hornets instead of invest in new airframes, decide a dedicated aerial demonstration team is superfluous?

ramair wrote:

My concern is that sooner rather than latter the RCAF will pull the plug on the Snowbirds altogether. At what point does a country, that opted to buy used Hornets instead of invest in new airframes, decide a dedicated aerial demonstration team is superfluous?

cumulushumilis wrote:

A few colleagues are ex snowbird team members, the consensus among them is that best replacement aircraft is an upgraded Tutor (new engine, avionics and ejection systems). The airframe is solid, and has lots of time left.

Snowbirds don’t need fast loud jets. Their mount is perfectly fine for the type of flying they do as it is definitely a pilots aircraft and well suited to precision aerobatics. A tutor NG would work fine.

krisyyz wrote:

ramair wrote:

My concern is that sooner rather than latter the RCAF will pull the plug on the Snowbirds altogether. At what point does a country, that opted to buy used Hornets instead of invest in new airframes, decide a dedicated aerial demonstration team is superfluous?

That is, in my opinion the most likely scenario. Investing in new jets for an air demonstration team when we have major operational fleet issues and a lack of pilots would be a bad PR day for the government. Apparently the F-18 is not well suited for air demonstration, even though the USN uses them for that. There was "talk" of a either ordering or moving some of the CT-155 Hawk by 2020 but obviously nothing materialized.

While a re-engineered Tutor is exciting and interesting, I would rank that possibility just above the CF-105NG project.

I'm willing to bet the Snowbirds will be paused for a while, and once we get the CF-35 the RCAF and the Government will be keen to show her off at every opportunity.

KrisYYZ