In August 1969, a crowd gathered in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada to watch one of the most spectacular aerobatic teams in the world — the Blue Angels. For 23 years, the Blue Angels had thrilled millions of spectators with their demonstrations of precision aerobatics and formation flying. The maneuvers, taught individual to every naval aviator during flight training, are exhibited to perfection when flown by the Blue Angels in their Mach 2 Phantoms. During a pre-airshow practice on the morning of August 7, Capt. Vince D. Donile, flying Right Wing #2 in his F-4J Phantom, was setting up inbound for the Four Plane Cross maneuver when he noticed that he had fallen behind in positioning. To compensate for his tardiness, Capt. Donile elected to light up his over 36,000 pounds of thrust with afterburners, quickly accelerating towards the crossing point at show center. Unfortunately, he was a few seconds too late when he deselected his burners, and his Phantom announced his error to the world by shattering the morning air with a deafening sonic boom. Even more unfortunate was the fact that Capt. Donile exceeded the speed of sound directly over the downtown area of Kelowna. The shock wave produced by the supersonic jet blew out thousands of windows on homes and businesses. Shortly after, hundreds of Canadian residents gathered to survey the damage. Many armed themselves with the first thing they had available to clean up the shattered glass: snow shovels. The $250,000 repair bill was paid by the U.S. government.
The Day a Blue Angel Phantom Took Out Downtown Kelowna, British Columbia
In August 1969, a crowd gathered in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada to watch one of the most spectacular aerobatic teams in the world — the Blue Angels. For 23 years, the Blue Angels had thrilled millions of spectators with their demonstrations of precision aerobatics and formation flying. The maneuvers, taught individual to every naval aviator during flight training, are exhibited to perfection when flown by the Blue Angels in their Mach 2 Phantoms. During a pre-airshow practice on the morning of August 7, Capt. Vince D. Donile, flying Right Wing #2 in his F-4J Phantom, was setting up inbound for the Four Plane Cross maneuver when he noticed that he had fallen behind in positioning. To compensate for his tardiness, Capt. Donile elected to light up his over 36,000 pounds of thrust with afterburners, quickly accelerating towards the crossing point at show center. Unfortunately, he was a few seconds too late when he deselected his burners, and his Phantom announced his error to the world by shattering the morning air with a deafening sonic boom. Even more unfortunate was the fact that Capt. Donile exceeded the speed of sound directly over the downtown area of Kelowna. The shock wave produced by the supersonic jet blew out thousands of windows on homes and businesses. Shortly after, hundreds of Canadian residents gathered to survey the damage. Many armed themselves with the first thing they had available to clean up the shattered glass: snow shovels. The $250,000 repair bill was paid by the U.S. government.