Since 1972, nine members of the Canadian Snowbirds air demonstration team have died while on duty, along with one passenger.
Prior to Sunday, seven pilots and one passenger have been killed during flights, while one pilot was killed in a motor vehicle accident after an airshow in the U.S.
in the 1980s, according to the Royal Canadian Air Force website. The Snowbirds were first created in 1971 and have performed at airshows in Canada and the U.S.
for decades. They fly the Canadair CT-114 Tutor, a jet that was used by the Canadian Forces as “basic pilot-training aircraft” between 1963 and 2000. “Flying by its very nature has an inherent element of risk,” the RCAF site says.