Home 
In 1959, as the world was embracing commercial air travel, Canada was set to unveil her latest offering to the world: Ottawa International Airport. Originally known as Uplands, the newly renovated hub would be a state-of-the art facility promising to shuttle a million passengers to destinations around the world each year.
On the day before it was set to open in December of that year, The Royal Canadian Air Force was practicing an airshow it would perform the following day to highlight all of the features offered by the new airport. In support of their neighbors to the north, the United States had deployed a single F-104 Starfighter to participate in the festivities. The jet, built by Lockheed Martin, had supersonic capabilities and was that era’s apex predator of the skies.
Wanting to make the most of the moment, a Canadian official on the ground requested a special maneuver by the Starfighter on loan. The American pilot, eager to help, pointed his jet at the terminal in a low, flat arc and performed a supersonic flyby.
Unfortunately, the trailing sonic boom shattered glass all over the airport including every window along the exposed side. It also knocked down ceiling tiles, blew out doors, twisted window frames, and even shifted structural beams that held the building together. George Hees, Canada’s Minister of Transportation, said the blast of the supersonic explosion “subjected the terminal building to five times the hurricane force which it had been designed to withstand.” The incident would end up delaying the opening of the airport until the following year and costing more than $500,000 to repair (roughly $10 million in today’s economy) making it “the most expensive five seconds in Canadian civil aviation history.”
That aviation accident offers a valuable lesson to each of us today: things that require lots of time to build can be torn apart in a matter of seconds. For example, friendships forged over years can be ripped apart in a single explosive remark and marriages built on years of trust can be shattered in a instant of infidelity. We can’t let destructive moments ruin what we’ve built.
Click here for the online report.
