10-JUN-2011– Lt. Col. Lee Vogan and Capt. Jens Lundgreen-Nielsen of the 419th Tactical Fighter Squadron, escaped injury after ejecting from their military plane moments before the jet came crashing down west of Cold Lake.
The aircraft, a CT-155 used to train fighter pilots, went down at 11:40 AM.
Two pilots who safely ejected from a military jet before it crashed near the Cold Lake air force base are shown speaking to two unidentified bystanders along Highway 28. Watch the rescue truck whiz by at 9:12.
“After we exhausted all possible remedies, we realized at that point that we would try for the field, try to glide in. It came apparent quite quickly that we weren’t going to make it. But I don’t believe in quitting ever, so we kept trying to a point we decided we had to get out of the aircraft. We discussed first and foremost, where we would put the airplane because where the aircraft was going to come to was essentially very important to us,”
– Lt. Col. Lee Vogan.
Two Hawks from 419 Squadron at CFB Cold Lake flying a training mission, one Hawk with an Instructor and Student, the other with two Instructors. The two qualified instructor pilots were conducting an instructor upgrade sortie, including a wingman syllabus mission. They heard a loud bang and noticed an increasing turbine gas temperature and turned the aircraft towards the Cold Lake airport. The pilots set a medium engine power setting and commenced a shallow climb above 12,000 feet. After receiving their wingman’s report of smoke emanating from their aircraft and after noticing an increase in engine vibrations, the pilots shut down the engine. During the glide back to base it became clear they weren’t going to make the runway, so they attempted to restart the engine. During the restart, the wingman reported flames coming from the lead aircraft, after which the pilots then discontinued the restart and resumed their glide. Unable to reach a runway, they carried out a controlled low level ejection at 2,500 feet. The pilots parachuted in to a shallow swamp suffering minor cuts and bruises, while the aircraft crashed and was destroyed. The instructors Vogan and Lundgreen-Nielsen have 23 and 14 years of flying experience.
Crash site located 4 kilometers from the runway – in a vacant field – fire crews quickly extinguished crash fire.
The investigation concluded that the Hawk CT155 Adour Engine low pressure turbine (LPT) blade, which had a history of fatigue cracking at the trailing edge rear acute corner, failed prior to reaching its design life.
