Air Canada Plane Crashes After Skidding Off Runway
Twenty-five people have been taken to hospital after a plane crash landed and skidded off a runway in Canada. Air Canada flight AC 624 was landing in heavy snow at Halifax Stanfield International Airport in Nova Scotia, Halifax earlier this morning.
There were 133 passengers and five crew members on board- 25 were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Power went down at the airport shortly after the incident and it is thought the plane could have taken out a power line.
Air Canada said Flight AC624, an Airbus 320 that left Toronto late on Saturday, had 133 passengers and five crew member on board. Halifax Stanfield International Airport tweeted: ‘We are thankful no serious injuries have been reported.’ The airport said its airfield remained closed.
Airport spokesman Peter Spurway said the aircraft touched down in stormy conditions.
He said: ‘It came down pretty hard and then skidded off the runway.’
But he did not yet know whether runway conditions played a role.
The Halifax region is currently under a snowfall warning.An Environment Canada alert warns: ‘Visibility may be suddenly reduced at times in heavy snow.’Mr Spurway added that power went off at the airport, which meant an emergency response center had to be moved to a nearby hotel.The cause of the outage was not clear, but Nova Scotia Power said they had since restored service.
The airport said 25 passengers were taken to hospital, while Air Canada said 23 passengers and crew were injured.Mike Magnus, a businessman who was sitting in the first row on the plane, said the aircraft was at the “furthest tip of the airport” when it stopped.He said he heard that the plane may have clipped a power line that caused the power outage at the airport.
The 60-year-old said: ‘It was so chaotic at the time. I’m pretty sure the landing gear broke on it. The engine on my side popped off.’ Mr Magnus believes at least one engine was torn off the Airbus A320. He says the nose of the plane was sheared off and he believes the wings were damaged too.
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