The Day a Blue Angel Phantom Took Out Downtown
"On Thursday afternoon and evening, thousands of eyes will move skyward, to watch one of the most spectacular aerobatic teams in the world. The famous United States Blue Angels will fly for Okanagan residents and visitors during the 63rd edition of Canada's greatest water show. The Blue Angels, officially known as the U.S. Navy flight demonstration team, have for 23 years thrilled millions of spectators with spectacular demonstrations of precision acrobatics and formation flying. The manoeuvres, taught individually to every naval aviator during flight training, are exhibited to perfection when flown by the Blue Angels in their Mach 2 Phantoms." - August 6, 1969 - The Kelowna Daily Courier
During a pre air show practice on the morning of the 7th of August; Capt. Vince D. Donile flying Right Wing #2 in his F-4J Phantom was setting up inbound for the Four Plane Cross maneuver when he noticed he had fallen behind in positioning. Compensating for his tardiness, Capt. Donile elected to light up his over 36,000 pounds of thrust with afterburners, quickly accelerating towards the crossing point at show centre.
Unfortunately, Capt Donile was only moments too late when he deselected his burners, and his USN F-4 Phantom announced his error to the world as it shattered the morning air with a deafening sonic boom. Even more unfortunate, was the fact that Capt Donile exceeded the speed of sound directly over the downtown core of Kelowna BC. The shock wave produced by the supersonic jet blew out thousands of windows on homes and shop windows in a radius of the downtown area. Hundreds of Canadian residents gathered to survey the damage. Many armed themselves with the first thing they had available to clean up the shattered glass...snow shovels.
The United States Navy Blue Angels Flight Demonstration Squadron first flew in 1946, and has been seen by well over 260 million people since their first airshow. The Blue Angels have demonstrated an impressively high safety record of operations...and although breaking the sound barrier is an effective way to announce an airshow, this was a one-time occurrence for the Blues. One that is not likely to be repeated.
Sure does make for a good story though...
UPDATE - December 2018
We were contacted by USN Captain Vincent Donile USN Blue Angels #2 who gave us a first hand account, and corrected us on some missing aspects of the story.
Like father, like son my father and I both had 30 years in the Navy. I was a corpsman, and my father was a Mustang LDO Officer. One of his duties with the SENABOTRA Staff was the Admin Officer for the Blue Angels. As a young man I had the outstanding honour to meet and get their signatures of the Blues for about 4 years running. The only other flight demonstration team that could come close to the Blues, back in the day was the Canadian Golden Hawks, in the F-47 Supper Sabor. They came to Pensacola for the 50th Anniversary of Naval Flight Celebration. Those pilots showed us what a man and his flying machine could really do when pushed to the wall. God Bless The Blue Angels, and the USA. D-DOC
Oh how I miss the Fox 4’s! If there was ever an airplane platform that was an awesome demonstration of raw power it’s the F-4. I was was thrilled to get a ride in one out of Wolf Squadron in Ubon or Udorn Thiland back in the day in SEA. My unit had charge of all the ground directed bombing in the Vietnam War. We had just perfected the art of using the F-4 in the worst conditions imaginable for close air support bombing and even got so good at it that we could even run 20 Mike Mike on occasion. I once met a ground pounder that thanked me for the hot shell casings that fell on his head one foggy afternoon when they were about to be ovrrun and they thought close air support was impossible! We were working with an Army FAC on the ground and he was forwarding the ground coordinates to one of our two sites and we coordinated all of this in real time 👌. I was in the O club bragging this feat up one afternoon and the wingman was standing at the bar a few feet away from me! That’s how I got the courtesy ride in the F-4 one beautiful afternoon in SEA 😀 I have been a pilot since I was fifteen and flunked out of fighter school (USAF) because I couldn’t handle the G’s but I didn’t share this information with the good Captain or his Crew Chief until we got back down on the ground 👍. Every time I see that commercial with the lizard in the back seat of the WWII bird I think about that wonderful afternoon in the F-4 and the great guys who made it all happen 😁! Thanks for the memories!
I was also there as a member of the Blues and I still have the newspaper from Kelowna
Correction:
flown by Lt Christensen. We were headCapt.Donile was in #2 Right Wing
I was the Crew Chief in the backseat of
On to and watching for #2.
That night arriving in town for the Chamber Of Commerce meet and great we
Got to see the plywood windows painted with “Dam You Red Baron/ Yankee Go Home.It was a fun tume. Years later my wife and I visited Kelowna in the S end of Lake Okanogan.one of the most beautiful places on the earth I had vowed in 1969 I would return to. Dave Kent UAL Capt Ret.
I remember the story being told as my brother, Cmdr. Harley H. Hall was getting ready to take over the Blue Angels as the Commander.
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