Illustration by Canadian Press
The Air Canada A320 that crash landed at Halifax’s Stanfield International Airport early Sunday touched down about 1,000 feet before the runway threshold and hit an antenna array before tearing off the gear and sliding to a stop about 1,000 feet down the runway, according to crash investigators. Mike Cunningham, of the Transportation Safety Board, told the Canadian Press that weather might have been a factor in the accident but nothing has been determined. “Obviously, it’s too early to draw any conclusions about this occurrence. These things are always very complex,” he said. “This type of event is on the TSB’s watchlist and so it’s a very great concern to us and we’ll be putting our maximum effort into determining what happened.”
Transportation Safety Board of Canada
Up to 25 people were taken to the hospital (reports vary) mostly with cuts and bruises, and only one was kept overnight. The flight had departed from Toronto with 133 passengers and five crew aboard, authorities said early Sunday morning. Although there was a snowstorm at the time, the weather was just above minimums and safe for the landing, said Air Canada Chief Operating Officer Klaus Goersch.“It was safe to fly in this weather. The aircraft did circle for a period of time but when the approach was initiated, the weather was at the approach minimums,” Goersch told a news conference.”The weather was appropriate for landing.” There are 15 investigators working on the case and the flight data and cockpit voice recorders are being analyzed.
