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Local pilot dies at Alberta Air Show

“Evans was a lover of fast cars, faster motorcycles and anything with wings."
bruceevansvintagewings
North Bay native Bruce Evans died in a plane crash in Alberta on Sunday. Photo courtesy Vintage Wings of Canada.

Former North Bay resident Bruce Evans, a pilot with more than 4,000 hours of flying experience died when his T-28 Trojan plane crashed on Sunday afternoon during the Cold Lake Air Show in Northern Alberta.   

See the full Canadian Press story here: https://www.baytoday.ca/national/one-dead-after-plane-crashes-at-air-show-in-cold-lake-alta-339069

The crash occurred in view of horrified airshow spectators, among them Cathy Heron, a city councillor from St. Albert, Alta. 

"It just had gone and inverted and done a loop or something, and then it just nose-dived right into the ground," said Heron to the Canadian Press. 

"It just sort of disintegrated into dust in the hill."

Evans grew up in North Bay in a Canadian air force family with his father working as an aircraft maintenance engineer. He also was a teacher at West Ferris Senior Secondary and played football with the North Bay Tiger Cats.  

In 2007, Evans purchased the Trojan, a single engine, propeller driven aircraft that was manufactured in 1955 and served in the U.S. Navy.

The Widdifield Senior Secondary graduate owned his own airborne geophysical survey company Firefly Airborne Surveys combining his training as a professional geologist and passion for aviation.

The Vintage Wings of Canada website stated Evans went to Queen’s University where he commuted from North Bay to Kingston by airplane.   

“Evans was a lover of fast cars, faster motorcycles and anything with wings," stated Dave O'Malley on the Vintage Wings of Canada site. 

"He studied the layered and hidden strata of Earth, the time signatures of this blue planet. He loved the early stories of exploration, mining and aviation history and shared them with everyone. Bruce was both an intellectual and a man’s man, an Easterner with a Western heart, a dreamer and a pragmatist.” 


Chris Dawson

About the Author: Chris Dawson

Chris Dawson has been with BayToday.ca since 2004. He has provided up-to-the-minute sports coverage and has become a key member of the BayToday news team.
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