Grey Cup game bids farewell for now to iconic Snowbirds aerial team

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CALGARY - The national anthem is set to ring through McMahon Stadium on Sunday and herald across the sky nine Snowbirds jets, in a fitting show retiring the planes of ...

CALGARY - The national anthem is set to ring through McMahon Stadium on Sunday and herald across the sky nine Snowbirds jets, in a fitting show retiring the planes of Canada’s military aerial ambassadors.

The CFL’s Grey Cup championship game will be the last time the Snowbirds fly in their CT-114 Tutor jets for a scheduled public spectacle.

Capt. Marc-André Plante, who flies as Snowbird 8 on the team, says it’s the perfect sendoff.

“It is Canada’s demonstration team. It’s Canada’s football league. It’s like all these things just kind of make sense, when you look at it where we just celebrate Canada as a whole,” he said in an interview.

The Snowbirds, based out of the 15 Wing Air Force base at Moose Jaw, Sask., have never flown anything but the Tutors.

They have performed roughly 2,700 times for more than 140 million people across North America in more than a half-century of service.

At the end of the year, the Tutors are to be retired and will eventually be replaced by the CT-157 Siskin II. The team is expected to be temporarily grounded until the early 2030s.

The jets are to set off from the Calgary International Airport and zoom over the stadium as close to their minimum flight height of about 150 metres from the tallest point that they’re flying over, creating a memorable chorus of ooohs and ahhhs.

As celebrated Canadian musician Sarah McLachlan finishes her final note of O Canada, the jets are to roar over the stadium one last time.

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