A new monument dedicated to a fallen captain with the Royal Canadian Air Force was unveiled in Kamloops, B.C., on Thursday.
The memorial at the Fulton Field Park adjacent to the city’s airport honours Halifax-born Capt. Jennifer Casey who died in a plane crash in Kamloops four years ago during a Snowbirds tour.
Jean-Pierre Thimot, Casey’s father, observed the memorial from a distance as he arrived at Kamloops Airport.
“You could see this thing from the airport glistening in the sun,” he told CBC News. “The closer you get to it, the more spectacular it gets. It’s, it’s a beautiful piece of art.”
Casey, 35, was a public affairs officer for the Canadian Forces Snowbirds and a former journalist.
She was involved in a cross-country tour intended to uplift Canadians during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic when the aircraft she was in crashed after takeoff in Kamloops on May 17, 2020. The pilot and Casey both ejected shortly before the plane nose-dived into the ground, but only the pilot survived.
Brigadier-General Ron Walker, the wing commander when the tragic accident occurred, says Casey was the driving force behind the tour, known as Operation Inspiration.
“She was able to motivate all the people around her to this effort and really inspire us to say, you know, this is going to be a great event flying over people’s houses and letting them see that the world is coming more normal every day,” said Walker, who is the deputy commander force generation for the Canadian Air Division headquarters in Winnipeg, Man.
A silver outline of a Canadian Forces Snowbird stands in the sky near the Kamloops, B.C., airport as part of a new public dedication honouring Nova Scotia-born Capt. Jenn Casey. She died on May 17, 2020. Speaking from the ceremony, her father remembers his daughter as a “beautiful person inside and out.”
Designed by local artist Sarah Holliday, the memorial is a full-scale replica of the RCAF CT-114 Tutor Snowbird aircraft Casey was flying in at the time of the crash.
“It’s that great feeling of having contributed something that the community can really enjoy,” she said.
Holliday first responded to a request for proposals from the city in 2022 for a memorial to honour Casey at Fulton Field Park. She said she researched Casey to learn about her as a person to develop the concept for the monument.
After her design was selected, she worked with friends at a local fabrication company to finalize its construction.
Constructed from stainless steel, the monument includes a mosaic of maple leaves held together by branches, with its angled design suggesting the aircraft in flight.
“The leaves represent the feelings of Canadians over the loss of Jennifer Casey,” she added.
According to Holliday, the three pillars supporting the structure recognize communities that rallied around Casey and the Snowbirds after the tragedy: Casey’s hometown of Halifax, the Canadian Armed Forces and the City of Kamloops and Tkʼemlúps te Secwépemc.
For Morgan Gustafson, Casey’s lifelong friend, the memorial is a heartwarming tribute to the fallen captain’s ever “adventurous” spirit.
“The initial days, months after the crash, we always worried that people would forget about her and not talk about her anymore,” said Gustafson, who met Casey on the first day of elementary school in Halifax.
Casey joined the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) in 2014 after several years working as a journalist, according to her biography on the Royal Canadian Air Force website. She joined the Snowbirds in November 2018.
Her father, Thimot, says he is proud of his daughter and all her accomplishments.
“She was a beautiful person inside and out,” he said. “Whatever she did, she took it on full force, and that’s why she was so successful in her life.”