First victim of RCAF Cyclone helicopter crash identified
Abbigail Cowbrough played Amazing Grace on board HMCS Fredericton in tribute to mass shooting victims
HALIFAX — A 23-year-old woman has been identified by her parents as the first victim of a Royal Canadian Air Force Cyclone helicopter that crashed off the coast of Greece on Wednesday.
“I am broken and gutted. Today, I lost my oldest daughter, Abbigail Cowbrough, in the crash involving the Cyclone from HMCS Fredericton,” Shane Cowbrough wrote in a Facebook post early Thursday morning.
HMCS Fredericton and its crew of 250 Canadian sailors and support staff left Halifax on Jan. 20 to take part in a six-month deployment in the Mediterranean Sea as part of Operation Reassurance.
The frigate was equipped with a Cyclone helicopter from 12 Wing Shearwater.
The Canadian Forces confirmed on Twitter Wednesday “contact was lost with the aircraft as it was participating in
Allied exercises off the coast of Greece.”
Early Thursday morning, the air force said it had “contacted all primary family members of those who were on board the CH-148 Cyclone helicopter that was involved in an accident in the Mediterranean Sea.”
At a news conference
Thursday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau confirmed six Canadians were on board the helicopter when it went down.
Chief of the Defence Staff Gen. Jonanthan Vance said the body of Sub.-Lt. Cowbrough, a marine system engineering officer, has been recovered, while five people are still missing.
Cowbrough’s mother confirmed her daughter’s passing in a Facebook post.
“My beautiful daughter has been in a military accident and passed away,” Tanya Cowbrough said. “She will no longer pipe her songs to all those that love her.”
Six days ago, Cowbrough posted a video of her playing the bagpipes, aboard HMCS Fredericton in Souda Bay, Crete, to Facebook in honour of the victims of a mass shooting in Nova Scotia on April 18 and 19.
“You can travel the world and still never meet anyone like an East Coaster. Glad to have been taken in by them, for I’d have it no other way,” Cowbrough wrote in the video’s post.
“To everyone back home, thinking of you,” she said, accompanied with #NSstrong.
Cowbrough was a member of the Union Fire Club Pipes and Drums, "a voluntary nonprofit society that primarily provides musical support to the Halifax Regional Fire Service." She also played the bagpipes at ceremonies at her church, Regal Heights Baptist Church, in Dartmouth.
A 2018 issue of the Maritime Engineering Journal identified Cowbrough as a marine systems engineer graduate of the Royal Military College of Canada.