CF-18 crash at Cold Lake

[conehead]

The Canadian Press

Date: Thu. Nov. 18 2010 8:36 PM ET

COLD LAKE, Alta. — A Canadian Forces pilot who huddled for two hours in the cold and dark after he ejected from his CF-18 fighter jet wasn't seriously hurt when rescue crews found him at the crash site in northern Alberta.

Capt. Darren Blakie was on the final approach to Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake a few minutes before midnight Wednesday when his plane went down in a field 13 kilometres away.

He was discovered by rescuers scouring the area in a military helicopter when he set off a flare to attract their attention.

"He was found in fairly good condition, all things considered, and he was taken to hospital," said Capt. Nicole Meszaros, a spokeswoman for the air base.

Blakie -- a member of the 409 Tactical Fighter Squadron at Cold Lake -- was examined by a military doctor at the local civilian hospital and was expected to be released.

Meszaros said Blakie was participating in a night training exercise at the time of the crash.

Capt. Keith Hoey, spokesman for the Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre at CFB Trenton, Ont., said it wasn't clear why the pilot had to eject. A flight safety team from National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa was to examine the wreckage and determine what happened.

Meszaros confirmed that the cause is still a mystery.

"We don't know what went wrong at this point of time," Meszaros said. "We don't like to speculate on that ... because it could compromise the outcome of the investigation."

Hoey said the emergency response to the crash was immediate, although "the weather and the fact that it was dark just made it difficult to find him."

Meszaros said the rescue crew and the RCMP worked together to pinpoint the scene.

"That effort to get everybody involved in finding the downed aircraft and finding the downed pilot was obviously critical in making sure Capt. Blakie survived after the crash."

Meszaros said she wasn't sure how many others may have been out flying. "Typically it's a group of pilots who go up and they do their training in a co-ordinated effort.

It was cold, but Meszaros wasn't sure if it was snowing. It was -13 C around that time, with the wind chill making it a bone-chilling -22 C.

Blakie would have been well-prepared, she suggested.

"One thing about flying in northern Alberta, our pilots are well-equipped and well-trained to deal with the elements, so when they go flying, they certainly wear the right military equipment to ensure their safety in the event of a crash," she said

"We have an extensive program run by our flight safety staff on the base . . . cold weather is something that members of the Canadian Forces operate in."

The crash is the second in Alberta involving a CF-18 in about four months.

In July, one of the jets exploded in a huge fireball during a low-speed, low-level practice run prior to an air show in Lethbridge.

The pilot, Capt. Brian Bews, suffered back injuries when he ejected from the aircraft just seconds before it hit the ground.

The crash prompted the military to ground the demonstration team's fighter jets for the remainder of the year, although CF-18s have continued to fly at air shows in non-aerobatic roles.

Produced between 1982 and 1988, Canada's CF-18s are aging and due to be replaced by 65 F-35 stealth fighter jets in 2020. They are based in Cold Lake and Bagotville, Que., and the air force had 78 modernized CF-18s remaining as of September.

The $16-billion F-35 purchase has been controversial because the contract was untendered. A Liberal motion calling on the government to immediately cancel its deal with Lockheed Martin is likely to pass next week, but will not be binding on the government. The government maintains the F-35 is the best option available.

[anonymous]

A Canadian Forces pilot who huddled for two hours in the cold and dark after he ejected from his CF-18 fighter jet wasn't seriously hurt when rescue crews found him at the crash site in northern Alberta.

his plane went down in a field 13 kilometres away.

That's friggin embarassing....he could have walked to the hospital faster...man, I would hate to think how long it would take them to find someone who bailed out near the Jimmy Lake range or worse northern Labrador while chasing TU-95s...

[twlarose]

I've worked at the air base and the recovery time does sound absolutely rediculous. Given it's an aerodome with all kinds of radar systems that should at least be able to identify the general area, additionaly most civilian cellular phones have GPS technology and even transmission capability. You'd think a person piloting a multi-million dollar aircraft and the aircraft/ejection seat would have similar capability in the event of a crash. Way too long to recover a pilot.

[Bobcaygeon]

I've worked at the air base and the recovery time does sound absolutely rediculous. Given it's an aerodome with all kinds of radar systems that should at least be able to identify the general area, additionaly most civilian cellular phones have GPS technology and even transmission capability. You'd think a person piloting a multi-million dollar aircraft and the aircraft/ejection seat would have similar capability in the event of a crash. Way too long to recover a pilot.

Your assuming there was a SAR team at the cold lake airport when it happened. There likely wasn't at that time of day. (Ask your MP why there wasn't)The SAR team was likely on-call and the actual search was very short.

[Kip Powick]

Your assuming there was a SAR team at the cold lake airport when it happened. There likely wasn't at that time of day. (Ask your MP why there wasn't)The SAR team was likely on-call and the actual search was very short.

Thee are 3 SAR regions in Canada and in this case Cold Lake is covered by Trenton, ON.

This is the normal standby policy of SAR aircraft.........

Current policy requires each SRR to have one of each type of aircraft per SAR squadron to be airborne within 30 minutes during weekdays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time, and within two hours at other times. This standby posture reflects the fact that the vast majority of aircraft crashes and marine emergencies occur during these hours.

There is no doubt that a C-130 was NOT scrambled from YTR but rather the RCC probably went to CFB Cold lake to see if they could scramble a helo out of their base or anywhere in close proximity. A C-130 would take about 5 hours to get to the region.

Having run the HFX RCC for 4 years I can tell you that no matter what happens, the RCC will be blamed for lack of action but the cold hard fact is that the CF does not have enough resources to keep everyone happy and the only way the Rescue Centres could cover all situations is to send up an aircraft whenever anyone goes flying or send a ship, (CF and Coast Guard), to cover every vessel in Canadian waters........and we know that ain't gonna happen.

In this case perhaps if there was training going on, perhaps CFB Cold Lake should have had a chopper on standby at the base for just this very type of incident......who knows??

I have been grilled by MPs and Lawyers about the lack of resources but when it is all said and done, no one wants to be responsible for tasking trained aircrew, aircraft and ships as well as Rescue Specialists to sit on their butts for probably 99.9% of their time and wait for an incident.

Politicians really like to play the fact that we can not be at any incident within minutes and I was basically torn to pieces in Court in NFLD after the crash of C- CFL near Churchill Falls. The lawyer in question was told, by the judge to back off when being fed up of this pompous ass and his cross examination that I stated "if we had Rescue CF104's on standby, or even in the air at the time of the crash it would not have made any difference. Unfortunately everyone was killed upon impact".

The lawyer in question was looking for political points as he was advocating a CF Rescue Base in Labrador.

(PS...he invited me out for lunch at recess...said the time in the court was not personal, just business. )