Air Canada AC624 Crash: 23 Injured As Plane Lands Hard At Halifax International Airport

At least 23 people have been injured when Air Canada flight AC624 landed hard on the runway of Halifax International Airport early Sunday morning. Investigators are trying to determine if weather was a factor to the incident. Air Canada said the airport had stormy conditions when the aircraft landed at 12.43 am.

The Airbus 320, with 133 passengers and five crew members, left Toronto late Saturday. Passengers interviewed by Toronto Star said they felt the aircraft hit a power line when it landed. They also said the plane skidded on its belly for some time before it finally came to a stop.

Inside the aircraft, airbags started to deploy and things began falling on the floor. Randy Hall, who was with wife Lianne Clark, uttered, “Oh no. We’ve got to get out.” Hall noted a big flash when they were coming in to land. “The plane came down, bang! It jumped up in the air again.” The landing was so hard that the motion ripped off one of the gears. “I was looking out and I saw the landing gear go and I saw an engine go,” said Hall.

Hall said none of the passengers seemed severely injured. He added they immediately left the plane but had to stand on the tarmac for over an hour. Hall noted the strong winds before the buses arrived. It was reported wind gusts at the airport early Sunday were up to 101 km/h.

Dominic Stettler told The Guardian they immediately kicked the doors, jumped onto the wing and ran as fast as they could away from the aircraft. “We just wanted to get away from the aeroplane in case of explosions or anything,” he said.

Mike Cunningham, a regional manager for Canada’s Transport Safety Board, said in a news conference Air Canada flight AC624 had touched down 1,100 feet [330 metres] short of the runway. He said the aircraft hit an antenna array that sheared off one of its landing gear.

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