The status of several scheduled Blue Angels performances at the upcoming National Cherry Festival is uncertain in the wake of the death of a pilot last week.

The Blue Angels have cancelled appearances in New York and Ohio this month following the June 2 death of Capt. Jeff Kuss, whose F/A-18 jet crashed while he was practicing for an air show near Nashville. Cmdr. Jeannie Groeneveld, a spokesperson for the Blue Angels, told the Navy Times Wednesday the organization was taking an "operational pause" and should know more next week on how long that pause would last.

"The Navy Flight Demonstration Team, in coordination with [Naval Air Training Command], will make a determination of when they deem it is safe to resume flying and will send a request to the Air Boss [Vice Adm. Mike Shoemaker] for approval at that time," she said.

Blue Angels representatives could not be reached for comment Wednesday regarding the status of the Traverse City shows.

National Cherry Festival Executive Director Trevor Tkach tells The Ticker his organization is going to "keep moving forward as planned" with preparation for the performances until informed otherwise by the Blue Angels, who have not yet notified NCF of any intention to cancel.

"We have to be sensitive to the situation," Tkach says. "They just lost a co-worker. We need to wait for things to heal, so we're being thoughtful in that regard. We're following their lead."

Tkach says in the event the Blue Angels cancel, the Cherry Festival would still host its planned air shows with the rest of this year's participating aircraft.

"A lot of people have high hopes to see the Blue Angels when they appear, and it has a positive economic impact on having them in Traverse City," he says. "It would be difficult to lose a partner like that this close to the festival. But the great thing about the Cherry Festival is we have a lot of different components over eight days, so I have confidence it's going to be successful no matter what occurs."

The National Cherry Festival is scheduled to take place July 2-9.