The pilot of a CF-18 fighter jet was blinded by falling snow when he ejected from the aircraft and sent it crashing to the ground near Cold Lake, Alta. in late 2010, according to a new report from investigators.
Capt. Darren Blakie was approaching the runway to land at Canadian Forces Base Cold Lake just before midnight on Nov. 17 of last year when the crash happened. Blakie managed to parachute into a wooded area without being seriously injured.
According to an initial report from the investigation into the crash, Blakie was wearing night-vision goggles during a training flight and was blinded when a landing light came on, which illuminated falling snow.
Alone in the cockpit, he "was almost immediately disoriented" by the light and could no longer make out instruments he used to fly the CF-18, the report said.
Blakie pulled the nose of the aircraft up but "feeling that he was in a dive and thinking he was rapidly approaching the ground below," the report said Blakie decided to eject.
Investigators found that the aircraft was "serviceable and operating normally" prior to the crash. They also found that at the time of the crash, CF-18 pilots were routinely going on training runs using night-vision goggles and landing on unlit airfields, which was not authorized by the division's flying orders.
The pilot was also inexperienced in night flying, the report said, and hadn't been on a training flight using night vision goggles for 224 days.
After the crash, 1 Canadian Air Division ordered that pilots be given more flying experience before undertaking training runs with night vision goggles, the report said.
Blakie, a member of the 409 Tactical Fighter Squadron at Cold Lake, was discovered by rescuers in a military helicopter two hours after the crash when he set off a flare to show his location.
Several military aircraft have crashed in Alberta over the past year.
In June, a CT-155 military training aircraft crashed near the Cold Lake base. Its two crew members ejected safely.
And last July, a CF-18 fell from the sky during a practice run for an air show in Lethbridge, Alta. The pilot, Capt. Brian Bews, injured his back after ejecting seconds before the aircraft hit the ground and erupted in a ball of flames.
