The Royal Canadian Air Force captain who died in a Snowbirds crash was a former Carleton University journalism student and varsity rugby player.
Capt. Jenn Casey was killed Sunday when a Snowbirds jet crashed into a Kamloops neighbourhood moments after takeoff. After leaving the runway next to another Snowbird, the Tutor jet in which Casey was a passenger climbed into the air at a steep angle then turned and plummeted to the ground for reasons that remained unexplained.
“It’s just so shocking,” said Capital Ward Coun. Shawn Menard, who befriended Casey at Carleton University and campaigned with her for executive positions on the Rideau River Residence Association (RRRA) in 2004.
Menard met Casey when she was a first-year journalism student living in residence at Carleton University’s Lanark House in the fall of 2003. She was a floor representative for Lanark House and attended meetings of the RRRA’s events council; Menard was a residence fellow at the time, studying criminology and public administration.
“She had this infectious positivity about her,” Menard said in an interview Monday. “It’s hard not to be happy around a person like that.
“She was driven and you could tell she was going to do well in life,” he said.
In 2004, Menard and Casey joined with another colleague, Aaron Gillich, to form an electoral team they dubbed “GMC” that promised more student jobs, more bands and lower laundry costs. Casey was running to become RRRA’s director of program management.
“We didn’t win that election, but the planning that went into it, the discussions we had, I just remember those times so dearly with Jenn,” Menard said Monday. “I just remember the fun we had. It was a really nice time: She was a very special person.
“She was one of those people who was a natural leader, and who had that East Coast friendliness about her.”
In a tweet Monday, Carleton University President Benoit-Antoine Bacon said the entire school community is mourning the loss of Casey, who spent time at the university before earning a bachelor of arts degree from Dalhousie University, a bachelor of journalism from the University of King’s College, and a masters of interdisciplinary studies from Royal Roads University in British Columbia.
“Our thoughts are with all those who knew and loved her,” Bacon said.
According to her RCAF biography , Casey joined the armed forces in August 2014 as a direct-entry officer after several years working in broadcast as a radio reporter, anchor and producer in Halifax and Belleville, Ont. She joined the Snowbirds in November 2018 as the team’s public affairs officer.
Casey is the ninth person to die in a Snowbirds plane crash since the air demonstration team was formed in 1971.
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