1,000 mourn Snowbirds pilot killed in crash

MOOSE JAW, Saskatchewan – Although already an accomplished pilot, Capt. Shawn McCaughey dreamed of one day flying a CF-18 fighter.

On Friday, five of the jets screamed across a sunny Saskatchewan sky in his honor.

About 1,000 mourners packed Hangar No. 4 at 15 Wing Moose Jaw Base to pay their last respects to McCaughey, the sixth member of the Canadian Forces Snowbirds to die in a plane crash since 1972.

The 31-year-old from Candiac, Quebec, was killed last week when the jet he was flying crashed while the team was practicing for a performance near Great Falls. McCaughey’s flag-draped casket was brought into the hangar by his teammates, his helmet, wings and sword carried close behind.

It was placed between the noses of two planes – one a CT-114 Tutor jet flown by the Snowbirds, and the other a CT-156 Harvard II, the plane McCaughey flew as an instructor.

Investigators have said it could be months before it is known what caused McCaughey’s plane to suddenly break away from the pack and slam into the ground.

But Maj. Robert Mitchell, commanding officer of the team, suggested in his eulogy that the situation could have been a lot worse.

“I believe time will reveal that he was a hero last Friday in the air, potentially averting a much greater tragedy,” Mitchell said.

“You should take comfort in this, as I do. The greatest compliment to him as a pilot that I can think of is to simply say I trusted him on my wing.”

McCaughey learned to fly while studying physical geography at Concordia University.

He finished both his bachelor’s degree, with honors, and earned his commercial pilot’s license in 2 1/2 years. After graduating from Concordia in 2000, he joined the Canadian Forces.

McCaughey was in his second year with the Snowbirds. While he was a former flight instructor with 1,400 hours of flying time, he was the first Snowbird pilot to have no previous experience on the CT-114 before joining the team.

Still, he was able to master it quickly, said Maj. Cory Blakely, Snowbird No. 3.

“As with any training, Shawn encountered hurdles along the way. But he overcame them with his endless supply of determination,” he said. “I’m proud of Shawn as a pilot.”

Away from the cockpit, McCaughey was remembered as a generous man who was always smiling.

He loved to make his friends laugh with his impressions from the movie “Borat” or by dancing like a monkey.

“His death … I know it’s going to change me and I know it’s going to change everybody here,” said Capt. Dominique Lassond, fighting back tears.

“I’ll miss you, bro. I know you’re never too far and I know every time all your pilot friends, everybody here, steps into the aircraft, Shawn’s right there next to you.”

Blakely recalled the love McCaughey had for his fiancée, Claudia Gaudreault, a social worker on the Moose Jaw base. The two were to marry in Montreal next month.

Before he left for Montana, McCaughey wrote Gaudreault a birthday card and left it for her in their bed. She found it the night he died and it was read to the mourners by Julie Selby, the widow of Miles Selby, a Snowbird pilot who died while flying in 2004.

“You are my heart’s true love, the one I was meant to meet across time, across space, whatever obstacles life puts in our way,” the card read.

“You are the only one with whom I could find such a wonderful deep and exciting love and I’m so glad to be sharing life’s beautiful adventures with you.”