Passengers safe following Air Canada crash landing
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 31 March, 2015, 9:52pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 31 March, 2015, 9:52pm
Associated Press in Toronto
Firefighters work at the crash site of Air Canada flight AC 624.
An Air Canada passenger plane landed so significantly short of the runway in Halifax that it hit an electricity cable and knocked out power at the airport, the lead investigator said.
The Airbus 320 landed 335 metres short of the runway during an early on Sunday morning snowstorm. It crashed into a bank of antennas and sheared off its main landing gear, nose cone and an engine before skidding on its belly. Twenty-five people were taken to the hospital and all but one has been released.
Mike Cunningham, regional manager for Canada's Transportation Safety Board, said on Monday investigators are still trying to determine why flight AC624 from Toronto landed prematurely.
The airport terminal building went black as the plane hit the power line outside several hundred feet outside the airport.
"That's pretty unique. The power line itself is well beyond the obstacle clearance criteria from that runway and that aircraft touched down significantly short," Cunningham said.
The power cut meant an emergency response centre had to be moved to a nearby hotel. Nova Scotia Power later restored power, and police said a power line south of the runway outside airport property was damaged.
Cunningham said he was sure the lack of power was a contributing factor in the delayed response in retrieving the 133 passengers and five crew members.
Passengers complained they were left standing on the tarmac for up to 50 minutes as they were lashed by wind-whipped snow before buses arrived.
Halifax Stanfield International Airport spokesman Peter Spurway also said they are also conducting an investigation into their response.
"We can do better than that," Spurway said. "The question is how do we move 138 people safely off a runway in a snowstorm at quarter to one on a Sunday morning."
