CF-18 makes emergency landing after losing part of rudder

A CF-18 Hornet fighter from Alberta made an emergency landing at the Thunder Bay, Ont., airport Thursday after part of a rudder broke off, said a report.

Public affairs officer Capt. Jennifer Jones told the Thunder Bay Chronicle-Journal the aircraft was one of two Hornets flying from 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alta., to Mirabel, Que., to undergo modernization upgrades.

Both were scheduled to land at Thunder Bay to refuel.

But roughly 10 kilometres from the airport, one of the aircraft lost a piece from its left tail-rudder, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing, said the report.

Jones said the landing was completed safely and the pilot wasn't hurt.

The rudder piece fell somewhere northwest of the airport and has yet to be retrieved, said the newspaper.

It is described as about 30 cm wide by 91 cm long, and made of carbon fibre.

Since the fibre can be an irritant, people are cautioned not to handle the rudder if they find it.

Instead, they are urged to contact local authorities, or the base at Cold Lake.

The incident is being investigated to determine the cause.

In 2005, a piece of wing from a CF-18 dropped into Lake Ontario near Toronto. The jet had been flying over tens of thousands of spectators during the city's Molson Indy auto race. No one was injured.

A year earlier, an unarmed missile fell off a CF-18 as it landed over Yellowknife. There were no injuries in that incident.