Last night, an Air Canada A320 from Toronto (YYZ) to Halifax (YHZ) touched down short of the runway, clipping a power line. Media outlets first reported a runway overrun and then a hard landing with a “bump” (Air Canada’s official terminology), but it was a bit more extreme than that…the landing gear is no longer attached to the plane, at least one engine is off, and the wings are destroyed. Air Canada later tweeted that the plane “exited the runway”.
Here’s the report from the Aviation Herald:
An Air Canada Airbus A320-200, registration C-FTJP performing flight AC-624 (dep Mar 28th) from Toronto,ON to Halifax,NS (Canada) with 133 passengers and 5 crew, was on approach to Halifax’s runway 05 at about 00:07L (03:07Z) when the aircraft touched down short of and below the runway threshold, clipped a powerline and approach light about 250 meters short of the runway, climbed the embankment up to the runway level and came to a stop past the threshold of the runway near taxiway B about 300 meters down the runway. The aircraft was evacuated. 23 people received injuries and were taken to a hospital, the aircraft sustained substantial damage (all landing gear collapsed, left hand engine separated, wing damaged, horizontal stabilizer damaged).
The Canadian Transportation Safety Board sent a team of investigators to Halifax last night and the pictures in the dark already made clear the extent of damage to the aircraft. They’ve now posted daytime photos and wow…it’s truly a miracle that all 138 people avoided serious injuries. Impressive engineering as well, the 24 year old A320 basically stayed intact, protecting all passengers inside the cabin.
Check out both the night and daytime photos courtesy of TSB Canada’s Flickr account here.
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