A chaotic scene unfolded at a Canadian airport when a plane had trouble landing and caught fire as it skidded down the runway.
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Halifax Stanfield International Airport was temporarily closed on Saturday night after an Air Canada flight from St. John’s caught fire during landing. The incident occurred when the aircraft’s landing gear failed to fully deploy, per the CBC.
A passenger’s video captured the harrowing landing, showing flames bursting from the plane’s engines.
WATCH: Air Canada flight lands with broken landing gear at Halifax airport. Only minor injuries pic.twitter.com/k6dWYMlibR
— BNO News (@BNONews) December 29, 2024
Remarkably, the injuries reported were minor.
An Eyewitness Recounts the Harrowing Air Canada Emergency Landing
Nikki Valentine, a passenger aboard Air Canada Flight 2259, operated by PAL Airlines, recounted the shocking experience in vivid detail.
“The plane started to sit at about a 20-degree angle to the left and, as that happened, we heard a pretty loud – what almost sounded like a crash sound – as the wing of the plane started to skid along the pavement, along with what I presume was the engine,” Valentine told the CBC.
“The plane shook quite a bit. We started seeing fire on the left side of the plane, and smoke started coming in the windows,” she added.
She said the plane skidded roughly down the runway for a significant amount of time as the pilots worked urgently to fix the situation, which happened around 9:30 pm.
After the aircraft came to a halt, Valentine reported that it took approximately two minutes for all passengers to evacuate—despite part of the plane being engulfed in flames. Once they disembarked, passengers were promptly transported by bus.
“One side of the entire plane was on fire. Everyone was pretty much in a hurry to get off, but an organized hurry,'” she recalled to CBC.
Since apparently every single news source decided to use it, hi, I was on the Air Canada flight that crashed on the runway in Halifax today, and I took this photo, so credit me pls it's all I ask for my trauma lmao pic.twitter.com/OWHIfvy6iY
— nikki has deleted x, is on bsky 🐀 (@nikki_m_vee) December 29, 2024
Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick informed the Toronto Star that the flight encountered a “suspected landing gear issue.” Fitzpatrick pointed out that none of the 73 passengers sustained serious injuries.
A spokesperson for the Nova Scotia Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) confirmed that only minor injuries were reported. Following the unexpected landing, one of the airport’s runways has since been reopened. Authorities have launched an investigation to uncover the cause of the incident.