An Air Canada plane on Sunday went off course the runway at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.
Gatekeepers News reports that the flight AC2259, which was run by PAL Airlines, veered off down the runway and caught fire after touching down with broken landing gear.
The aircraft was reportedly arriving from St. John’s when its landing gear malfunctioned during landing, causing the wing to scrape the runway, triggering a blaze.
According to CBC News, a passenger, Nikki Valentine, recounted that one of the plane’s tires failed to deploy correctly during landing.
Valentine said, “The plane started to sit at about a 20-degree angle to the left and, as that happened, we heard a pretty loud — what almost sounded like a crash sound — as the wing of the plane started to skid along the pavement, along with what I presume was the engine.”
“The plane shook quite a bit, and we started seeing fire on the left side of the plane, and smoke started coming in the windows.”
Valentine noted that it took up to two minutes to evacuate everyone from the plane, which was nearly full.
She said, “One side of the entire plane was on fire, so everyone was pretty much in a hurry to get off — but an organized hurry.”
Peter Fitzpatrick, a spokesperson for Air Canada, confirmed that the plane experienced a suspected landing gear issue after its arrival. The plane was unable to reach the terminal, and both the crew and 73 passengers were safely off-loaded by the bus.
The airport noted that one of its runways has since reopened. Four flights were diverted, and there were several cancellations and delays while the airfield remained closed.
No fatalities were recorded from the incident.
