Motorists caught in huge traffic jam going to Portage la Prairie air show

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This article was published 03/06/2016 (3142 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PORTAGE LA PRAIRIE — Neither rain, mud, road construction, nor bumper-to-bumper traffic stretching for two dozen kilometres could stop eager Manitobans from attending an air show Saturday.

Thousands sat on lawn chairs or blankets, or stood with children in their arms, at the Manitoba Air Show as a CF-18 thundered by or as the Canadian Forces Snowbirds did their trademark aerobatics.

“Wee,” was all six-year-old Ayla Crosbie could shout out excitedly when asked if she liked the planes flying by.

When Ayla overheard her dad, Chris, saying he was at one of the last air shows about eight years ago, she piped up, “I wasn’t alive eight years ago. I’m only six.”

Nearby, sitting on a lawn chair next to her 14-year-old son Ryan, Carole Crane said she has always loved going to air shows.

“It has been a long time since the last one,” she said.

“It’s always a great way to support our troops and appreciate them, too.”

As a CF-18 quietly rocketed by — followed a few seconds later by the delayed roar of its engine — Ryan said he would love to be able to take the controls of a CF-18.

“It would be pretty cool to fly it,” he said.

In the arms of their aunts Maggie and Nellie Neumann, four-year-old Talia and two-year-old Caleb gazed as the planes did various tricks and stunts just above the runway in front of them.

“She likes the show,” Maggie said of Talia. “She loves the planes. The only thing she is afraid of is the loudness. She really does love planes.”

Nellie said Caleb still hadn’t said how much he loved the show, but he certainly showed it.

“He just points, and his mouth is open wide,” she said.

“He loves it because it is loud and fast.”

Other highlights included a C-130 Hercules and a cadet glider demonstration.

The air show kicked off at 9:30 a.m., but by early afternoon, westbound traffic out of Winnipeg and on the Trans-Canada Highway was crawling bumper to bumper from just east of Elie to the grass parking lot at the east side of Southport, just south of Portage la Prairie.

Organizers blamed the delays on both a collision outside Elie and road construction that left much of the highway down to a single lane.

Some people gave up and turned back to Winnipeg or set up lawnchairs at the side of the highway a few kilometres short of Southport to watch the aircraft in the distance. When an unlucky few got to the grass field and parked their vehicles, they got stuck in mud and had to wait for a tow truck to get them out.

Nicole Ryan and her family were among those stuck in the traffic. At 9:30 a.m., Ryan, her husband and her nearly two-year-old son packed up their car at their home in Steinbach, pre-purchased some tickets and headed off for their first-ever trip to the air show.

By 1 p.m., they were stuck on the highway about 20 km from the site, having crawled through traffic for about 90 minutes.

“There were tons of cars driving away from the air show, waving at us to turn around,” said Ryan, who ultimately heeded that advice and went home, having spent more than six hours total in the car.

While stuck on the highway, Ryan posted a “PSA” video on Instagram warning others not to make the trek — “Don’t waste your Saturday,” she says.

“I’m sure the show itself was wonderful, but accessibility has to be No. 1,” she said. “We spent $50 on tickets, and I’m sure there’s got to be hundreds, if not thousands, of people who spent even more and didn’t get to go.”

Ryan said the experience is a deterrent from attempting to attend the air show in future years, and expects there are a lot of disappointed families who feel the same way she does. She has requested a refund for her tickets.

Air show spokesman Ed Ulrich said they didn’t really know how many people would come to the air show until they showed up.

“We were hoping for 5,000, we planned for 15,000, but today we have many more than that,” he said.

“Looking over the crowd, I’m thinking we have three or four folk festivals here.”

Ulrich said the air show, the first in the province since 2009, was set up as a 100 per cent charitable organization that will benefit five local charities: the Children’s Hospital Foundation, United Way, Air Cadets, the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum and the Manitoba 99s (the local chapter of women pilots).

Ulrich said if you didn’t get out to this air show, it may be a while until you see another one in Manitoba.

“We are all volunteers, and it is tough to do this,” he said. “We are all airplane fans, and it had been a long time since Manitobans could see an air show nearby.

“We aren’t planning to do it next year. It was extraordinarily difficult to do it.”

 

— with files from Erin Lebar

 

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca