Ejection just before crash

FEDERAL — A Canadian Forces pilot avoided serious injury when he managed to eject from his CF-18 Hornet fighter jet just seconds before it crashed during a practice session for an upcoming air show in Lethbridge, Alberta.

The dramatic incident unfolded shortly after noon on July 23 as Captain Brian Bews was practising for the Alberta International Airshow, says Captain Holly Brown, a public affairs officer for the Canadian Forces in Ottawa. The Canadian Air Force will conduct a flight safety investigation, Brown says.

"We want to make sure we find out everything we can so something like this doesn’t happen again," she says.

Brown reports that Bews was conducting a low-level flight in the fighter jet, used specifically for the airshow season, when he was forced to eject seconds before the plane hit the airstrip. Emergency responders recovered Bews, who was taken to hospital for treatment of compression fractures in three vertebrae.

"Given the incredible amount of force in the ejection sequence, this type of injury is very common in air crew who eject," Major Rachel Morrell, a wing surgeon at the 4 Wing fighter pilot training base in Cold Water, Alberta, says in a statement.

Bews says he feels "extremely lucky" considering the magnitude of the accident. "I will be concentrating on rest for the next while, but will make a complete recovery."