TORONTO -- Two Canadian air force jets collided and crashed into Lake Ontario, but witnesses said one pilot appeared to avert catastrophe by steering his crippled jet away from crowds of horrified spectators.
That pilot went down with his plane Sunday and was presumed dead, but the second pilot ejected and parachuted to safety.
Canadian National Exhibition spokesmen said no spectators were injured.
The two aircraft -- two-seater Tutor CT-114 jets -- clipped wings during a stunt called the upward-downward bomb-burst maneuver by the Snowbirds squadron at the Canadian International Air Show along Toronto's waterfront, police said.
A videotape taken by an amateur photographer showed both planes spinning out of control after the collision. One exploded in flames and plunged directly into Lake Ontario, and police said its pilot, Cpt. Shayne Antaya, 24, of Stratford, Ontario, was presumed dead.
The second plane, which appeared to be increasing its altitude when the crash occurred, veered out over the lake and its pilot, Maj. Dan Dempsey, ejected and parachuted to safety.
Dempsey, 36, of Edmonton, the squadron commander, was picked up by a police boat and taken to Toronto General Hospital, where he was treated for facial cuts and minor burns and released.
The two red-and-white jets, which wereamong nine jets of the Canadian Forces' elite Snowbirds aerobatic team, plunged into the lake about 1:45 p.m. EDT, just 15 minutes after the air show began before thousands of spectators on Toronto's islands and lake shore. Antaya's wife, mother and other family members were among those who witnessed the crash.
Several witnesses said Antaya appeared to gain some control over the plane after the collision, preventing it from crashing into the spectators.
'He did it to save us,' said Danielle Tremblay, 25, of Toronto. 'He might have had a chance but he took it straight down.'
She said it hit the water about 200 feet from the boat she was on.
'It was the most horrible thing,' Tremblay said. 'I feel sorry for everyone who was there and had to see that.'
Another witness also insisted Antaya had averted a catastrophe.
'You could tell that he was really trying to get out into a clearing,' he said.
The Metropolitan Toronto Police's marine unit and the Department of National Defense conducted an underwater search of the wreckage for the missing pilot. The search was suspended at 9 p.m. due to darkness and was to resume in the morning.
To the surprise of many spectators, the air show resumed less than an hour after the crash, although the Snowbirds immediately ended their stunts.
'We decided that the show should go on once we accomplished all our rescue procedures,' said Gerry Spracklin, president of the air show.
Canadian Forces Lt. Commander Ian Thomson said Antaya was an experienced pilot in the second year of a two-year tour with the Snowbirds.
Describing the fatal maneuver, Thomson said four planes go up while three come down and two others criss-cross underneath. He said the two involved in the collision had just come down and that planes flying in the stunt often reach speeds of up to 470 mph.
Because the crash involved two military jets, the Department of National Defense took over the investigation. A department official was sent from Ottawa to direct a board of inquiry, officials said.
The crash was the seventh since the air show began in its current form in 1949, and there have been seven previous deaths. The most recent was in 1977, when a restored World War II aircraft crashed into Lake Ontario during the airshow, killing the pilot.
In 1966, the pilot of a U.S. Air Force Blue Angels jet was killed when his aircraft struck a breakwater off Toronto Island Airport.
The Snowbirds, based in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, are in their 19th year of operation and have participated in more than 900 shows. Two other Snowbird pilots have died in four previous accidents, Thomson said.
