Pilot survives fiery CF-18 airshow crash

A Canadian Forces pilot escaped death last Friday, July 23, during a low altitude practise fly by at the annual Alberta International Airshow at Lethbridge County Airport (YQL). Flying a McDonnell-Douglas CF-18 Hornet, military designation CF-188A, similar to the U.S. F/A-18 Hornet, Captain Brian Bews ejected from the aircraft around noon at about 30 feet (10 meters) above the runway, as the plane began to plunge nose first into the ground. If Captain Bews had hesitated a fraction of a second, he probably would not have survived. The pilot remains hospitalized at Chinook Regional Hospital in southern Alberta, under observation.

CAPTIONS: (ABOVE LEFT) CF-18 crash in Lethbridge, July 23. Pilot Capt. Brian Bews ejected the plane and survived the crash (Photo courtesy Kurt's Kustom Photography); (BELOW RIGHT) Brian Bews, the pilot involved in Friday's crash in Lethbridge (Globe News); (BELOW LEFT) Captain Bews (left) inspecting CF-18 (Globe News); (BELOW RIGHT BOTTOM) CF-188A banking away from the crowd at the 2009 Bagotville International Airshow (Wikipedia common usage, public domain)

A video and slide show of this incident follow this article.

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According to Canadian Forces public information officer Captain Nicole Meszaros, "His spirits are good. He's in stable condition." The exact nature of his injuries were not revealed, due to privacy concerns.

Bews, who was born in Saskatchewan, performed in the CF-18 at air shows across Canada as part of a demonstration team.

"This is an isolated incident with one aircraft," said Lieutenant Colonel Midas Vogan, commanding officer of the 419 Moose Squadron based in Cold Lake. Other CF-18 aircraft in Canadian Forces fleet will continue to operate. A team of military investigators arrived on site from Ottawa on Saturday to determine the cause of the incident. To date, Canada has lost 17 CF-18s, involving nine pilot deaths.

Spectators at the air show reported that the plane had apparently lost power. According to one man, Ryan Giffin,as reported in the Calgary Herald,  "You could tell something was going wrong. It was going way too slow. There was a sputtering sound and two puffs of smoke from the engines."

The 1980s era fighter jet had been used by Canada to support NORAD patrols, and was also flown as a combat aircraft in the 1991 Gulf War, and in the late 1990s in Kosovo and Bosnia. It was the winner of a New Fighter Aircraft competition, which resulted in a windfall contract to its maker, McDonnell-Douglas, which has since merged with Boeing, of 98 single-seat aircraft (CF-188A) and a 40 dual-seat version (CF-188B), for a total of 138 planes.

The aircraft uses two General Electric F-404 GE-400 turbofans, each generating 16,000 pounds of thrust, which provide a maximum speed of Mach 1.8 (1,127 mph, 1,814 km/h), and a rate of climb of 50,000 feet per minute. Nine weapons stations carry various missiles, bombs, and other armaments.

The two-day Alberta Air Show draws about 35,000 sapectators, and costs about $500,000 to produce.

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