Snowbirds land in Hamilton, marking 55 years of service before upcoming extended grounding

There were a few special visitors to the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum this afternoon: the Snowbirds.

The aerial team landed in Hamilton for the last time before the program is grounded for several years. The team flew in from Barrie a few hours ago after attending an air show there last weekend.

While there were no dazzling tricks today, they did fly in formation past the crowd here on their way down to Niagara Falls for a loop. This was the last chance to see the current version of the famed Snowbirds.

“It means everything,” said the museum’s president and CEO Dave Rohrer. “They’ve been such great ambassadors to Canada for so many years. And for us to have them in the Hammer and take the time to come here, it means a great deal because our whole mission as the Canadian Warplane Heritage is to remember our military aviation heritage.”

Snowbird 1 Team Lead Maj. Maciej Hatta added that it is super exciting to be celebrating their 55th anniversary season this year.

The government announced in May that the nine-jet Snowbird team will be grounded until the early 2030s and eventually replaced with newer planes. The team will be moving from the current CT-114 Tutor jets to CT-157 Siskin 2 turbo-prop planes.

“It’s like losing a best friend after 55 years of knowing them,” said a Snowbird pilot. “It’s gonna be heartfelt. And everybody is not treating us with kid gloves, but it’s bitter sweet, right? This airplane has withstood the test of time, and it’s the only airplane the Snowbirds have known.”

Rohrer commented on the planes being switched, noting his preference for their current status.

“They’re such a great team. They’ve had such a great history as a nine-airplane jet formation team which is very rare, and very difficult to accomplish as well as they have,” Rohrer said. “My wish would be is that they stay as a jet team, even if they went to a seven-plane jet team, that it would be crows pleaser wherever they went, it would represent Canada extremely well.”

The Snowbirds team was escorted into Hamilton by the museum’s B-52 bomber. Unfortunately, the Lancaster — which has been painted to honour the squadron — was grounded today.

“What we’ve done in honour of the Snowbirds this year is we’ve marked the left side of our Lancaster in a 431 World War 2 Lancaster squadron marking to honour them,” Rohrer said.

Despite being in their final season for a while, the Snowbirds still wowed the crowd.

From Hamilton, the Snowbirds will fly to Columbus, Ohio, and make a few stops in Eastern Canada before ending their run in California in October.

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