Photo courtesy of TSBCanada
Early Sunday, Air Canada Flight AC624 crash landed at Halifax Stanfield International Airport, flying from Toronto, CBCNews reported. The plane "took a very hard landing" and skidded off the runway, Peter Spurway, a spokesman for the Halifax Stanfield International Airport said. The nose has been torn from the aircraft, and a wing sustained heavy damage.
Of the 132 passengers and five crew, around 25 people were sent to the hospital, and Air Canada tweeted that 18 have since been released. "Right now, we have some minor injuries. Nothing that is deemed to be life threatening," Spurway said.
Spurway added there was no indication as to what caused the crash landing, but did say that a federal investigation has started to find out if Flight AC624 knocked out electricity to the airport, which was without power for an hour. Weather may have also been a factor in the loss of power. "We're not sure if the two incidents are related," said Spurway.
Passenger Randy Hall told CBCNews that the plane, an Airbus A320, circled for 30 minutes to wait for a good time to land, as it was snowing heavily at the time. As the plane was coming down, there was "a big flash," Hall said. It is unconfirmed but quite possible that the jet hit a power line or pole.
Passenger Denis Lavoie said he saw sparks coming from the plane, and that there were two bounces once it touched down. Once stopped, passengers passengers egressed through the emergency exits.
"There was a couple people, all bloodied. Everybody was able to get out, but what was worse was that they left us for an hour outside in the blowing snow. I mean, we're all freezing and we're looking and going, 'Why isn't anybody coming to get us?'" said passenger Lianne Clark.
Once off the plane, the passengers ran away from the plane "because the fuel was coming out and we were scared," Clark said.
Greg Wright, waiting for his 13-year-old son, thought the teenager was joking when he called from the plane.
"He said, 'We crashed, we crashed.' I said, 'Where are you?' He said, 'I'm on the runway,'" Wright said. "I was panicked."
His son and other fliers were sent to a fire truck, then a bus, and were taken to an airport hangar triage, and checked for injuries, according to Wright. His son was not seriously hurt.
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