The airline said Flight AC624, an Airbus 320 that left Toronto late Saturday, had 133 passengers and five crew members. Airport spokesman Peter Spurway said the aircraft touched down in stormy conditions at 12:35 a.m. Sunday.
“It came down pretty hard and then skidded off the runway,” Spurway said. He said he didn’t know whether runway conditions played a role.
Canada’s Transportation Safety Board provided pictures that showed significant damage to the plane with the nose torn off and what appears to be an engine crumpled under a damaged wing.
“This was not a hard landing. This was an actual crash,” said Mike Magnus, a 60-year-old businessman who was sitting in the first row. “It was the closest I’ve ever come to death. There is no doubt in my mind. Obviously that’s some political maneuvering.”
Magnus added that the snow covering the runway likely extinguished any sparks that might have caused the plane to catch fire.
Passengers 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. Nova Scotia Power later tweeted that power had been restored, but didn’t indicate what caused the outage. Cpl. Greg Church of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said a power line south of the runway was damaged.
Passengers said they left the plane immediately but 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.
“People were just happy to be alive but after a while it got tiresome having to wait outside in the freezing cold. I only had a golf shirt on,” Magnus said.
Spurway said emergency responders were at the scene within 90 seconds, but their first priority was dealing with any fire threat. He said the power outage complicated efforts to get buses to the tarmac, but a tarp was provided.
Air Canada said 25 people were taken to local hospitals, but only one person remained hospitalized at midday Sunday.
The airline, Canada’s largest, didn’t make anyone available for comment and only issued news releases and tweets. Spokeswoman Angela Mah said Air Canada’s chief operating officer had arrived at the scene.
A spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board of Canada sai
d investigators will likely provide an update Sunday evening. Canadian Transport Minister Lisa Raitt thanked the first responders “for their quick and decisive action” in a statement and said the airport will review its response.
The Halifax region was under a snowfall warning, with an Environment Canada alert saying, “Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow.” Klaus Goersch, Air Canada’s chief operating officer, said the weather was appropriate for landing.
The flight crew had told passengers that conditions at the airport weren’t good and they would circle for an hour to see if things improved, said passenger Dominic Stettler, 31, a father of three.
“And then there was a window of visibility and we went for it,” Stettler said.
Randy Hall and his wife Lianne Clark were on their way home from a Mexican vacation when 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, who is retired. “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.
“I was looking out and I saw the landing gear go and I saw an engine go,” he said.
Flight tracking site Flightradar24 listed several cancelled flights at the airport Sunday morning.
(AP)
Date created : 2015-03-29
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