Experienced Pilot Dies During Cold Lake Air Show After Plane Crashes And Explodes

A Calgary-based pilot with over 4,000 hours of flight experience died during a Cold Lake Air Show, in Alberta, after his T-28 Trojan aircraft crashed Sunday afternoon and exploded, according to CBC.

Pilot Bruce Evans, 59, crashed the plane he has owned since 2007 at around 2 p.m. on Sunday and witnesses, including the Cold Lake Mayor, reported seeing an explosion and smoke after the plane hit the ground.

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Cold Lake Mayor Craig Copeland was at the air show, held annually at CFB Cold Lake, 180 miles northeast of Edmonton, with his family when the fatal plane crash happened.

“I just saw the small explosion when the plane impacted the ground. He was doing his maneuvers sort of left of us and obviously lost control of his plane and crashed into the tarmac,” Copeland said.

The crowd went silent after the plane went down and the explosion could be heard quite some distance away. The spokesman for the 4 Wing Squadron, Captain Mathew Strong, said the remainder of the show was cancelled after the crash.

Peter Lozinski, a multimedia editor for the Cold Lake Sun was at the Air Show when the plane crash happened and he recounted the tragic event.

“The first couple of minutes, no one really knew what happened. A lot of people heard [the crash], but weren’t looking. Other people who were watching, saw it, but weren’t really sure what to think. But then within a couple of seconds, the alarm went off. Guys in uniform started running towards the crash site – sirens were going and ambulances were racing onto the runway area. The public address announcer came on and said, ‘everyone stay calm and listen to wait for instructions.’ People eventually sort of orderly walked themselves to the exits and they cleared off the area.”

The weekend long Cold Lake Air Show is a popular event in the area and attracts around 20,000 people to Cold Lake every year. The community is “fully behind” the men and women who serve in the air force and the military and come to show their support.

“I think everybody’s proud of the men and women that are pilots, whether private or flying for their country. They’re really brave individuals,” Copeland said.

“It’s unfortunate that today’s events happened. I think everybody’s heart is really sunk.”

Another witness, St. Albert City Councillor Cathy Heron, was also at the Cold Lake Air Show when the pilot died and said she heard a big bang but did not see the plane go down.

“I just turned my head right at the end,” she said. “[The pilot] must have been performing something in the air like a loop and then he went just nose first into the ground. It’s really horrific. The plane was pulverized.”

Cathy Heron said the plane crashed near some buildings a bit away from the runway and that at first she thought the explosion could have been part of the show, but when ambulances screamed down the track she knew it was something more serious.

“At first you think it’s part of the show, but it’s not,” she said. “There’s been lots of good aerobatics all day today and they pull up right at the end, but this guy just didn’t pull up.”

The plane crash did happen at a fair distance away from where spectators stood and watched so no one was in immediate danger of being hit by the crashing plane or following explosion, but all the spectators were told to leave the event after the fatal crash.

Alain Fontaine, another show goer, saw smoke rising from where the plane hit the ground, but noted he did not see any flames after the explosion.

“I guess he just came in too shallow, too quickly, and it crashed against the nose,” Fontaine said. “There was a little bit of smoke.”

The 4 Wing spokesman, Captain Mathew Strong, spoke out after the crash and sent his regrets to the Bruce Evans family.

“4 Wing and CFB Cold Lake and the Cold Lake Air Show express our condolences to the family, friends and loved ones of Mr. Evans,” Strong said.

Bruce Evans, who was born in Marville, France, was an experienced pilot and also a geologist by trade. He was the president and CEO of Firefly Airborne Surveys and was passionate about flying the airplane he had owned for almost a decade. The T-28 Trojan is a propeller driven aircraft that was used to train pilots in the 50s and 60s.