I was one of the witnesses when British air plane RAF Nimrod crashed into Lake Ontario during the International Air Show in Toronto on September 2nd, 1995. I wish I didn't witness. Why? Because 7 people died, 7 young men died and no one could do anything. Few years later, on September 11th, 2001 in horror I watched live news at home when the New York World Trade Center was attacked by terrorists and eventually collapsed. Thousands of people died. Two incidences 6 years apart, one pure accident a human error, and another one evil human choice.
The story goes on. I liked going to air shows. Every year about 2 weeks before I would get impatient about the Labor weekend air show. Little things like - which day should we go, where should we sit or will it rain? That year in 1995, something unusual was happening to me all week long before the air show. I was having these dreams about air plane landings near GTA airport. These white and red mid size air planes were flying over the highway and were landing on the Pearson International Airport, Toronto. It felt strange, but then I thought, I am getting impatient again and may be just because I pass by airport too often. Perhaps that is why the air plane dreams were sparked.
Finally we, my boyfriend then and husband now, decided to take on the Saturday show. It was the first day of the air show. That day Saturday turned out to be a beautiful sunny day. That morning I woke up and I was little edgy and excited. I told my mom, you will not believe what I dreamed about. An air plane crash and it crashed in front of our old house where I used to live when I was still in elementary school. It wasn't that bad of a crash, and I could not see if anyone died. I only saw a big round pointy tip of the plane, shadowing the whole front yard and the house. The smoke made impossible to see more detail. That morning my boyfriend quietly listen to this story on the other side of the phone.
We arrived at the CNE by noon. Passed through pathways full of people. Once in a while an army cadet would come up to us and try to sell us the air show program. 'Air Show Program for Sale', 'Air Show Program for Sale' - he kept yelling out loud. We passed on the first offer, but then gave in on the second offer, so we purchased the air show program for five bucks. We found perfect spot to watch the show. A spot that gave us nice view for free. It was sunny, very hot, but the breeze from Lake Ontario kept us cool.
Everything was going well. Planes flew back and forth, peoples heads moving back and forth. I particularly liked fighter jets like the F16 or Stealth leaving thunder like sound behind. I forgot all about my dreams and nightmares. The Nimrod came to the view. I don't remember if he flew by once or twice, but then around 3:30 pm (I think) close to the end of the show, the Nimrod was moving our way. Far away from us but our way. He was flying gradually down. I took some photos before. I watched, and the plane continued gradually descending towards the water. I thought - its all part of the show. Suddenly the plane nose dived into the shallow waters of the Lake Ontario. The water splashed and I thought - its all part of the show - this was me being in shock state and hoping that what I just saw was not real. People whispered, shook their heads. I looked into my boyfriends eyes - it was true, the plane crashed. Perhaps the plane in the dream was Nimrod.
Air show was cancelled, curious people were awaiting news, asked questions. As we walked back to the car the same army cadet passed us - 'Air Show Souvenir for Sale', 'Air Show Souvenir for Sale' - he yelled out.
[TRUE STORY]
REFERENCES
British Bomber Crashes During Air Show
This is a powerful tale you've told here, Anna.
ReplyDeleteI'm a pilot's daughter, and plane crashes have been my nightmare forever. Dad was still well, though retired from flying, when Swissair 111 went down here 9 years ago, and the province's heart was broken for so many lost souls and injured families. The only day I was ever grateful for his early-onset Alzheimers was just three years later, on 9-11. He was very agitated in the longterm care facility where he'd been living for a few months, as the television was on, and he saw the newscasts. A nurse turned the television off, and the event ceased to exist for him. For the rest of us, we will never forget.
Jodi, thanks for visiting and commenting. I can imagine how hard it was for you to live like that. I couldn't, every time family member is on the plane, I am always on pins and needles. I been taking many trips overseas last couple of years so I been on the plane a lot, you get used to, but then any type of shake my blood pressure goes up.
ReplyDeleteI don't know what prompt me to write this, I guess both anniversaries are around the corner, and just wanted to tell the story.
{{{HUGS}}} for all of this!!!
ReplyDeleteAnna, you told this story beautifully and poignantly.
You have ESP, another thing we have in common.
Hugs, JJ
Spooky story Anna, I am terrified of flying and have dreams of planes crashing quite frequently. If I ever have to go flying again I'll call you first.
ReplyDeleteJJ, I know there was more connection between us than writing, photography, etc. and now this. I really enjoy stories like that from others, so if you have any you should tell also. Thanks for reading and hugs, anna :)
ReplyDeleteBob, me and you, I am terrified of flying also. Last year I traveled a lot so I did over came the fear a bit, but then after few months I am back again to the same thing, and how we supposed to go to the Moon then lol? Thanks for reading and visiting this side of my blogging, Anna :)
ReplyDeleteI was just talking about this crash with a friend. I remember being absolutley terrified. I was 13 years old and spending some time in my olders sister's apartment. At the time, my other sister and I were looking out the window from the 25th floor watching all the planes doing the show. We had never been so high or experienced such a view when the plane went up and came straight down without pulling up. we were both terrified and still to this day its hard to believe it even happend. This may be kinda morbid but are there pictures or video of some sort?
ReplyDelete~mkrowe
mkrowe, thanks for your comments and visit. I guess finally I met someone who experienced the same thing. It was very scary view. I have one link below under references that links to the small article. I have some newspaper articles in archives still (Toronto Star), and I think I have the program book from that day. Such a loss, and it still feels like yesterday. Thanks again for your comments, Anna :)
ReplyDeleteI too was at that airshow in 2005. It was a sad event nonetheless....My husband is a pilot and I fly all the time, as does my 21 month old daughter. What many people don't realize, flying is safer than driving....why are we not all so solumn about the millions of car crashes that take lives daily, hourly, etc, that we all see along the highway during our commute? And as a result, how come we don't all have a fear of driving? Makes you wonder. Thanks for your blog, commemorating that horrific event. Today my family is watching the Blue Angels practice for their Naval Academy airshow right over our house!
ReplyDeleteHi Anonymous, you are so right about the land accidents versus air accidents. However, I must say the outcome of the air accident is more devostating because of the number of people being killed, for example 100 versus 1, and the scale of the accident, meaning the size, and possibility of crashing on land and etc. Thanks for sharing your story Anonymous, I hope your 21 months old is okay flying with you. Thanks again, Anna :)
ReplyDeleteMy friend was on the Nimrod.
ReplyDeleteAll this time later I still think about him a lot. I think the unexpected, sudden and public nature of their passing has made it so much more difficult for friends, family and witnesses. I hadn't really thought about the shows visitors until today. Thank you for writing so movingly about it.
Lousue I am so sorry about your friend. This is really sad matter. Thanks so much for visiting and sharing your thoughts with me. I will never forget this tragedy, it is still hard to believe that I been there, and after many years already, even though I don't have real connection to the lost lives, I feel sadden many times I think about it. Thanks so much for leaving a comment Lousue. Anna :)
ReplyDeleteMy brother in law died in that crash. He left a pregnant wife back in Scotland. Hard times followed but I've just been to visit his daughter who is a beautiful happy 13 year old who had just come back from visiting her uncle, her dad's identical twin brother in Australia. Thanks for your story-it brought back memories of that day but not in a sad way.
ReplyDeleteHi John, thanks so much for commenting. Sorry to hear about your brother in law. Leaving wife behind and then unborn child makes this story even more sad. However, we must all go one, and looks like your brother in law wife did great job raising a beautiful happy 13 year old daughter. Thanks so much for sharing your story with me, and I do hope like you said, that this story didn't sadden you more. Thanks so much again, Anna :)
ReplyDeleteI was 15 years old on this day. I was a volunteer on a US Coast Guard boat there for public relations. My father was in charge of the detail and we traveled two days earlier from Rochester, NY. I remember watching the plane going into the water and standing there frozen. My father yelled to get the boat ready to his crew and I. I remember on the way out, I kept picturing that when we got on scene it would be a single seater and we would grab the pilot out of the water. Routine, just like other rescues we have done. I do not know why. I watched the plane go in. I remember the hope and dissapointment after checking each life raft. I remember personal items of the crew. (things I will alway keep to myself) I can still smell the jet fuel. Everything I owned seemed to smell of it for months. I am twenty eight now and this is the first time I have expressed what I saw that day. My son asked me if I have ever been to Toronto.
ReplyDeleteJohn thank you so much for sharing your side of the story. Something like that will always stay with you for the rest of your life. With crush like in the shallow water, I doubt anyone would ever survive, but like you said the - there is always that hope, and then disappointment. Hope you can visit Toronto again one day, it is nice place to visit, but it always will bring those memories. After that I stopped going to the air show, may be one day I will be back. Thanks again for commenting John. Anna :)
ReplyDeletei went to school with one of the nimrod pilots involved
ReplyDeleteflt cooper was his name he is laid to rest in our local cemetery will always remember waiting to go into maths class chatting and having a laugh with him as for the crash it was all down to having the flight manual and check list to the older model nimrod hence they tried a move the aircraft they were in couldnt do and didnt have enough hight to recover a sad end for all involved
Chunk thank you for sharing your story about your friend who was killed in the Nimrod crash. At this point you just have to remember the good times with him. Sorry to hear that again, it was terrible crash that I will never forget either. God bless them all. Thank you again, Anna :)
ReplyDeleteI was on Toronto Island on that beautiful day...we had a great view of the air show. I was keen on seeing the Nimrod perform as it was a descendant of the Comet, the 1st commercial British jet liner, which I had never seen fly live, only on film. I watched it do that final loop and was very nervous, but kept telling myself that the pilot must have known what he was doing. However, it wasn't so...I knew it would not complete the loop and watched in horror as the plane hit the water. There was a very large audience, everyone was stunned...the feeling of helplessness is beyond words...I had tears rolling down my cheeks and to this day have never been to another airshow.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous thank you so much for sharing your story. Same with me, since then never been on the air show again. The feeling of helplessness is hard to accept, as I always wished for survival. Anna :)
ReplyDeleteI was there that day as I had to work at Ontario Place as a caricature artist, and I remember the captain and crew being interviewed on television the day before. The captain said,"We're going to push this plane to it's limits!".
ReplyDeleteThey seemed over-confident and cocky.
The next day I returned to work and observed the Nimrod to make the first of 4 or 5 passes. I returned to my station, and after a short time I heard a dull thud about 2 kilometres out.
Then I noticed people starting to leave.
"What happened to the Air Show?" I asked.
"A plane crashed." someone said.
My understanding is that the plane stalled due to pilot error. The picture in the newspaper the next day showed the crew in their glory. It was very disturbing.
Anonymous thank you so much for sharing your story. It is disturbing story, especially hearing that 'we're going to push this plane to it's limits', I guess they did, and unfortunately it ended in terrible tragedy. Thank you again for sharing your side of the story. Moments like that will never be forgotten. Anna :)
ReplyDeletemystical hogwash
ReplyDeleteAnna, thanks for sharing your experience of this tragedy. I don't believe I have ESP abilities but I certainly wouldn't denigrate anyone who claims they do. I remain open minded. Like some of your contributors above, I have a bit of knowledge about this accident as I was a Nimrod crewmember from the early 80's until the retirement of the jet in March 2010. I knew the Captain of XV239 from a Nimrod refresher course we'd been on in 1994 and I was also friendly with at least one other crewmen on that final flight. Unfortunately, 2nd Sept is destined to be etched in my memory for all the wrong reasons. Not only is it my birthday but on that same date in 2006 we lost 14 more comrades when another Nimrod exploded over Afghanistan after a fuel leak. It really is a good job I'm not superstitious but my birthday will forever be tinged with sadness for all the friends and colleagues that were lost on that date. I have many thousand hours experience on the Nimrod and flew as crew at airshows when the aircraft was eventually cleared for display after 1995. I never had any doubts about the aircraft or the pilots I flew with, as we all had a vote and the whole display routine was completely transparent; however, I must confess that more than one time as we did the final 'dumbell' turn, my mind flashed back to Toronto wondering what was going through their minds in those final moments. Very very sad and, although the Nimrod is no more, neither I nor anyone remotely connected to the aircraft will ever forget our fallen colleagues.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, thank you for sharing your story. I don't know if I have ESP, but sometimes I have those strange feelings, and this one especially. You obviously have lot of experience with Nimrod, and lot of history behind, and speak of it so greatly. I never had any connection, however I always remember one article that was posted then in our local newspaper just before the accident - the crew visited local senior's center. It was really nice of them. This always will be a sad story to tell. Thank you again for writing this comment. Anna :)
ReplyDeleteHi Anna. I've just landed on your page and it always brings back memories of when my dad used to fly on the Nimrod aircraft. He often talks about a flight where 3 of their 4 engines failed and they had to limp the plane back to the base. He flew with 203 sqn at RAF Luqa (Malta), 42 sqn at RAF St Mawgan and also at Kinloss. He was stationed there when the Nimrod went down in the forest following a bird strike on take off, killing the pilots. He was good friends with three of the crew in the Canada crash, and I also knew them through the families and the great RAF days that we had. When there was an accident I always used to hope he would come back OK when he went up in the air, I guess all the families did. Thanks for sharing your experience.
ReplyDeleteStuart, thank you for sharing a very interesting story about your father. It is unfortunate that he was part of the both tragedies, second one being his friends in the Canada crash. I will always remember the crew's faces in our local newspaper. It is unfortunate for something like that to happen. Thank you again for sharing. Anna :)
ReplyDeleteHello Anna,
ReplyDeleteI just happened to come across this post and thank you for writing it. I was 7 years old when the family went to the cne, I remember wanting to go on another fair ride but mom amd dad insisted we rush off to the airshow. I was standing infront totally distracted but these amazing tricks and the tracks of smoke left behind the planes like handwritten notes on the skyline. Then it happened, the nimrod was flying toward us amd dad said " watch as they fly the plane upwards!". It didnt amd its was like a horrible night mare. Being 7 I had a very hard time explaining what I had seen and no one really took the time to explain it to me. I think over the years I compartmentalized, I know there was an audience but I always felt that I was the only one who saw this. Ive most definitely never read about or spoke to another person that was there that day outside a couple of news articles. I think sometimes my partner thinks it was just a story I made up as a kid to somehow warrant a fear of flying. Like I said thank you for posting Anna, I think ive been desperate to know something about that day beyond my own account. Thank you again
Hello Anonymous, it will always be hard to believe for people who never seen it happen. It wasn't a small plane either. Even in the eyes of a 7 year old, seeing such can be very dramatic. I still tell the story to my friends and family and people I came across, but same I never came across a person in real life who saw the same knowing that there were thousands and thousands of people watching the crash. Thank you for leaving a comment! :)
ReplyDeleteI also witnessed that from a high balcony of a nearby apartment building (22 Close Avenue) where I lived. I was (and still am) an aviation geek and knew that the "stalling wingover" of the final turn would be an officially unauthorised manoeuvre and not recoverable. The huge "THUD", the following silence and the seething white water surface will forever be a bit of shock in my psyche. Then, for several days, the awfulness of the recovery of the plane and crew was going on outside our home's window. After all these years, I feel and share sorrow for the friends and families of the crew, bless their souls.
ReplyDeleteWith a lump in my throat, I accessed the Aviation Safety Network for the technical narrative of the incident. Here's a link:
ReplyDeletehttp://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19950902-0
Thank you Bettie for sharing your story. Until today I have a hard time to go and see another air show. We never been back since the crash.
ReplyDelete