Fighter jet flypast planned for Redblacks home opener Friday evening
Team says 2 fighter jets will pass by before 7:30 p.m. kickoff
Two CF-18 fighter jets will pass over central Ottawa Friday evening before the 7:30 p.m. ET kickoff of the Ottawa Redblacks home opener game against Winnipeg.
The team and city tweeted about the flypast on Wednesday. Neither they nor the Department of National Defence have given a more specific time or route.
Keep your eyes on the sky as two Royal Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornet fighter jets will perform a flyover before kick-off. ✈️ <a href="https://t.co/GlyTmiqdJP">pic.twitter.com/GlyTmiqdJP</a>
—@REDBLACKSFlypasts can be traumatizing for people caught unaware, those who have been in conflict zones and those who are sensitive to sudden loud noises.
A similar flypast over TD Place and the surrounding neighbourhoods in 2015 scared people, many of them contacting CBC. The Royal Canadian Air Force and team apologized for not better notifying people.
More recently, a CF-18 flypast over downtown June 6 led several people to write CBC about being caught unaware and frightened, particularly after the devastating fatal windstorm a little more than two weeks earlier.
Ahead of that recent flypast to commemorate the 1944 D-Day operation, the air force wrote in its media advisory that flypasts are carefully planned for public safety, depend on flying conditions including weather, and "allow us to demonstrate to Canadians the capabilities of our personnel and aircraft."
There's currently a 40 per cent chance of showers in Ottawa on Friday. The game is a rematch of last week's season-opening Blue Bombers win in Winnipeg.