Operational pause lifted on Hawks at 15 Wing

An operational pause put in place last week on the CT-155 Hawk fleet used at 15 Wing Moose Jaw has been lifted.

The pause was activated after a Royal Air Force pilot was killed in the U.K. after being ejected from his plane while still on the runway.

Flt. Lt Sean Cunningham of the RAF display team, the Red Arrows, was killed on Nov. 8.

The operational pause was put in place for safety reasons on the CT-155 Hawk used by the Royal Canadian Air Force for training at both 15 Wing and 4 Wing Cold Lake in Alberta on Nov. 9.

The Red Arrows fly the Hawk T1 aircraft, which is similar to the CT-155 Hawk, The planes use different ejection seat models.

Cpt. Thomas Edelson, 15 Wing spokesman, told the Times-Herald the pause was lifted on Friday.

“The Hawk fleet was deemed safe to fly. Based on information from the ejection seat manufacture Martin Baker and in collaboration with the RAF, it was deemed that the unsuccessful/fatal ejection in the Hawk T1 was maintenance related and linked to a component that does not exist on the ejection seat model we use in the Hawk CT-155.

“The result is that the ejection system in the Hawk (CT-155) is deemed to be compliant so we have every reason to expect that the CT-155 ejection system would function as advertised and the outcome would be successful if an ejection was to occur,” he said.

Edelson said the impact of the short pause in operations was negligible, although the fleet was still not flying as of Friday morning due to weather conditions.

“It’s wait and see with the weather for flying,” he said.