A bird strike is being blamed as the cause of that fatal crash of a Snowbirds jet last May in Kamloops.

A final report into the incident was released Monday morning. It concluded a single small bird was sucked into the engine of the plane just after it took off. That resulted in a compressor stall and a loss of thrust as the aircraft tried climbing

The crash killed Captain Jennifer Casey, the public affairs officer for the team.

That resulted in a compressor stall and a loss of thrust as the aircraft was trying to climb. It ended up plunging to the ground in a residential neighbourhood.

The report added neither Casey nor the pilot, Captain Richard McDougall, had time for their parachutes to function after being ejected.