23 injured as Air Canada aircraft skids off runway
Print Edition
AN Air Canada plane made an “abrupt” landing and skidded off the runway at the Halifax airport in Nova Scotia in bad weather early yesterday.
Twenty-three people were taken to a hospital for observation and treatment of minor injuries, officials said.
The airline said Flight AC624, an Airbus 320 that left Toronto on Saturday night, had 133 passengers and five crew.
Passengers on board the plane said they believe the aircraft hit a power line as it came in to land and described the plane skidding on its belly for some time before it came to a stop. Power went off at the airport, but officials didn’t confirm the cause.
Passengers left the plane immediately but said they were left standing on the tarmac, some in their stocking feet, for more than an hour as they were lashed by wind-whipped snow before buses arrived.
Air Canada said yesterday that 18 people who were taken to the hospital had been released. None of the injuries was considered life threatening.
Airport spokesman Peter Spurway said the plane touched down in stormy conditions at 12:25am yesterday. “It came down pretty hard and then skidded off the runway,” he said.
The Halifax region was under a snowfall warning, with an Environment Canada alert saying: “Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow.”
Randy Hall and his wife Lianne Clark were on their way home from a Mexican vacation. He said he believes the jet hit a power line before it landed hard on the runway. There were sparks but no fire, he said.
“We were just coming in to land and there was a big flash,” said Hall. “The plane came down, bang! It jumped up in the air again.”
The aircraft skidded for a long time before coming to a stop, said Hall. “We were sliding along on our belly,” he said.
Hall said the aircraft hit so hard, the landing gear and at least one of the engines were ripped from the plane.
Mike Magnus, a businessman who was sitting in the first row on the plane, said the aircraft was at the “furthest tip of the airport” when it stopped. He said he heard that the plane may have clipped a power line.
“It was so chaotic at the time. I’m pretty sure the landing gear broke on it. The engine on my side popped off,” he said.
He said that the snow which covered the runway likely deadened any sparks that may have caused a fire.
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