An Air Canada plane made a hard landing in bad weather and skidded off the runway at the airport in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the airline said today that 25 people were taken to hospitals for observation and treatment of minor injuries.
The airline said Flight AC624, an Airbus 320 that left Toronto late yesterday, had 133 passengers and five crew members. Airport spokesman Peter Spurway said the aircraft touched down in stormy conditions at 12:35 a.M. Today.
"It came down pretty hard and then skidded off the runway," Spurway said. He said he didn't know whether runway conditions played a role.
Canada's Transportation Safety Board provided pictures that showed significant damage to the plane with the nose torn off and what appears to be an engine crumpled under a damaged wing.
"This was not a hard landing. This was an actual crash," said Mike Magnus, a 60-year-old businessman who was sitting in the first row. "It was the closest I've ever came to death. There is no doubt in my mind. Obviously that's some political maneuvering."
Magnus added that the snow covering the runway likely extinguished any sparks that might have caused the plane to catch fire.
Passengers said they believe the aircraft hit a power line as it came in to land and described the plane skidding on its belly for some time before it came to a stop.
Power went off at the airport. Nova Scotia Power later tweeted that power had been restored, but didn't indicate what caused the outage. Cpl. Greg Church of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said a power line south of the runway was damaged.
Passengers said they left the plane immediately but were left standing on the tarmac, some in their stocking feet, for more than an hour as they were lashed by wind-whipped snow before buses arrived.
"People were just happy to be alive but after a while it got tiresome having to wait outside in the freezing cold. I only had a golf shirt on," Magnus said.
