Hawker Sea Fury crashes at Sarnia Air Show - Pilot Killed
David Bailey
Horrified teen sees dad's plane plunge
Sarnia air show tragedy
By JANE SIMS, EMMA COOPER AND DAVE PAUL, Free Press
Reporter & Special to The Free Press
SARNIA -- The 14-year-old son of a stunt pilot and thousands of other
spectators watched in horror yesterday as a vintage aircraft fell from
the sky, killing the pilot.
"I just heard sort of a 'crump' sound and I knew right away what had
happened," said Tom Walsh, organizer of the Sarnia International
Airshow.
Walsh described the pilot as "a good friend who I've known for about two
years." His son was watching, a sombre Walsh confirmed.
The pilot's identity was not released last night.
But airshow literature identified the plane as a Hawker Sea Fury owned
byMoore Aviation Restoration in Breslau, east of Kitchener.
A spokesperson for the company would not comment on the crash.
The plane went down in a soybean field in front of a farmhouse owned by
Joe and Elaine Walker on Jackson Road, east of Chris Hadfield Airport,
shortly after 2 p.m.
Witnesses said the plane banked over the farm, dropped and landed like
a folded accordion on the ground.
"It dropped straight down into the ground," said Scott Goodacre of Point
Edward, who was first on the scene.
"I think something broke," Goodacre said, describing how the plane did a
loop then crashed. "Where he was at the time, twisting around,
something happened."
Goodacre and his friends were at a house party down the road from the
crash site.
The group lost sight of the plane behind the trees. Then they heard a
boom.
Goodacre and a friend raced to the scene. "I ran up to it and I looked
and at the back of it you could see this red spot," he said.
Lloyd Blondin of Sarnia said the left wing on the plane was high as it
turned.
"It just looked like it rolled over," he said. "The last thing I saw was
the blue belly of the aircraft before it went down into the trees."
Transport Canada investigators were to arrive last night to survey the
twisted wreckage of the Korean War-era fighter, which landed beside the
farm lane.
The only other evidence of the crash beyond the wreckage, was a
snappedhydro line leading to the farm house.
The force of the impact was clear from the damage. Most of the plane was
unrecognizable. The tail's rudder was still intact, as was one of the
five prop blades that stuck out of the ground.
Police and air show personnel provided scant information three hours
after the crash in a hastily-called news conference.
Air show officials confirmed the plane was in the middle of its
performance when it crashed.
"He had taken off and had done two passes and was . . . setting up for
his third pass," said Blake Evans, air boss for the show.
Evans was asked about safety precautions in the wake of the Canadian
nowbird crash in Lake Erie before the London Airshow almost three weeks
ago.
"All of the safety precautions were given to the flight crews at this
show as they are at all the shows we do both yesterday morning and this
morning," he said.
A shaken Tom Walsh, ex-manager of the London International Air Show,
said it was too early to say whether there would be another show next
year.
"We would hope that it would be but the matter is in federal agency's
hands at this point," he said.
Walsh said he has never had a fatality at any show he has organized.
"I've been doing this 28 years and this is the first," he said.
lsh said no one else was injured in the crash.
Jim Foubister, a Sarnia city councillor who was at the airport, said it
was too arly to say if the city would still support the show, now in its
third year.
"Today is probably not the day to make that decision,"he said but said
the operation is "first-class" and has his support.
In an interview with a Sarnia newspaper last week, Walsh said he wasn't
orried about the safety of the event as his co-ordinators try to keep it
as imple and safe as possible.
"There's always a likelihood of something going wrong," he said.
THE PLANE
A Hawker Sea Fury FB Mk.11 is a fighter-bomber version of a plane
designed for the British Royal Navy and air force in the early 1940s.
The piston-powered planes entered the service in 1947 and flew with
distinction during the Korean War and remain the fastest piston engine
aircraft ever produced.
The Sea Fury scheduled to fly in the Sarnia show is owned by Moore
Aviation Restoration in Breslau, east of Kitchener.
The Moore Sea Fury, one of only 26 in the world still flying, started
its military life in 1947 with 802 Squadron of the Royal Naval Volunteer
Reserve.
It served in Korea in 1952 and recorded 165 bombing missions, and four
air-to-air kills, including two unconfirmed victories over Korean MiG-15
jet fighters.
After the Korean War, the single-engine plane was rebuilt and sold to
the Iraqi Air Force.
Purchased privately in 1972 in the U.S, it was restored to museum
quality in 1995 before coming to its permanent home in Canada.
The plane was to perform at the Goderich Airshow Sept. 15.
- Sources: Moore Aviation Web site; Sarnia International Airshow Web
site