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A Canadian Forces Snowbird pilot was killed when his plane crashed during a routine rehearsal for an air show in Montana Friday afternoon.

The jet was flying in formation with five other planes from Canada's renowned aerobatics team. Capt. Shawn McCaughey, 31, died in the crash.

"Unfortunately, it was my son," said Ken McCaughey Friday night from the family home in Candiac, Que.

Capt. McCaughey was in his second year with the Snowbirds, after having joined the Canadian Forces in 2000.

The Concordia University graduate flew the No. 2 jet in the inner right wing position. As a graduate of the NATO Flying Training in Canada Program, he was the first Snowbird pilot to have no previous experience flying the CT-114 Tutor.

Ken McCaughey said his son was to be married next month in Montreal.

Saturday is his fiance's birthday.

Colonel Richard Foster, the commander of 15 Wing Moose Jaw, said Friday night that Capt. McCaughey was a veteran and part of a group of some of the finest pilots in the world.

"He was a very professional pilot and he'll be missed," Col. Foster said in a telephone interview from the home base of the aerobatic squadron.

"The team will take an operational pause to remember Shawn McCaughey like we need to, and then we will go back and do the rest of the show season."

Several local residents were watching the rehearsal when the plane went down.

Gregg Dart, from Great Falls, Mont., had just picked his son and daughter up from school and was on his way home when they saw the planes practising at Malmstrom Air Force Base for the weekend air show.

"My kids said, 'Let's go watch them,'" he told The Globe and Mail Friday, "so we parked out on the interstate. We weren't even a quarter of a mile away."

About 15 other cars had pulled over to watch as well.

Mr. Dart, head football coach for a local high school, hadn't been there for five minutes when his 11-year-old son told him to look at the wing of one of the jets, which had broken away from the formation.

"It wobbled up a little and then [the whole plane] went straight down," he said.

"There was a dull thud and then a huge cloud of black smoke. We felt the concussion thud and you could smell the burning jet fuel."

Mr. Dart said there was no parachute, and because the planes were flying so low, there probably wouldn't have been enough time to open one.

"The one image that's going to stick in my mind is two of the planes came circling back over the wreckage, through the black cloud. I'll remember that more than the actual crash," he said. "I can only imagine what those men were thinking as they flew over their fallen comrade."

Gillian Scarber said she was driving into Great Falls and observed a group of four or five planes practising a formation when she saw one of them crash at the south end of Malmstrom's main runway.

The plane was coming down on a vertical loop, she said.

"It just smacked into the ground, and there was a big ball of flames."

She said smoke drifted across the highway as emergency crews raced to the scene.

The plane crashed about 4 p.m.

Emergency personnel were on the scene within minutes, and a coroner was also sent out.

Major Robert Mitchell, the Snowbirds' commanding officer, said Capt. McCaughey was flying upside down about 300 feet off the ground in a "routine maneuver" when the jet went down.

The team had been in the air for about 45 minutes when the crash occurred, said Maj. Mitchell, who was flying lead plane.

Capt. McCaughey made no radio contact and didn't indicate he was having trouble, he said.

Capt. McCaughey, the only person in the single-engine jet, did not eject.

"Shawn was a professional officer, talented pilot and dear friend," Maj. Mitchell said. "Our team is devastated, and we will miss him."

Maj. Mitchell said he and other Snowbird pilots had planned to attend the couple's June 9 wedding.

Capt. McCaughey's fiancee, whom Maj. Mitchell declined to identify, and family members were still in shock and looking for an explanation, he said.

"We just had to say we don't entirely know, which is tough for a family member," Maj. Mitchell said. "They want to know for closure."

Malmstrom crews worked late into the night combing the crash site for debris, and resumed early Saturday before the public began arriving at the base, base spokeswoman Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said.

Snowbirds team members, who spent Friday night on the base, planned to remain at Malmstrom to help with the investigation, she said.

A Canadian Forces flight safety team was to travel to Montana on Saturday to investigate the crash, and Snowbirds team members planned to remain at Malmstrom to help, he said.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the team, and our resources are at their disposal," said Malmstrom's wing commander, Col. Sandy Finan.

In a statement Saturday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called Capt. McCaughey "a positive role model and goodwill ambassador who truly personified the professionalism and dedication of all the women and men who make up our Canadian Forces."

The Moose Jaw-based Snowbirds perform high-speed, low-altitude manoeuvres in nine Canadair CT-114 Tutors and are part of the Canadian Air Force. The team performs at 60 shows a year in North America.

The fatality brings to six the number of Snowbird pilots who have died in crashes since 1972.

The team was scheduled to perform Saturday and Sunday in Great Falls.

An event organizer said the open house would continue as scheduled.

The team flies the planes almost daily, year-round — logging 3,700 hours annually.

With files by Canadian Press, Associated Press