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No injuries reported as regional jet slides off runway in Fredericton
Updated: Tue, Nov 28 09:26 AM EST

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FREDERICTON (CP) - The nose of an Air Canada jet sat about 10 metres from the side of a major highway early Tuesday after sliding off the runway while trying to land hours earlier. There were no injuries.
The Air Canada Fokker F-28 was on a flight from Toronto with 40 passengers and four crew. The plane was unable to stop on the tarmac and came to rest about 100 metres off the end of the pavement, RCMP said. It was snowing and slushy at the time. Chris Wheaton, a passenger on the jet, said the unusual landing was scary but everyone on the plane remained calm.

"It was quiet, nobody was screaming," Wheaton said. "I don't even think some people realized what was happening."

Wheaton said the jet landed fine, but it seemed the pilot couldn't get the aircraft to stop.

"The pilot seemed to be pumping the brakes and just couldn't get stopped," he said.

"And we just saw a bunch of red lights which meant it was the end of the runway. The next thing, we were in a field and that's when it stopped."

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is to investigate.

Nathalie Megann, spokeswoman for Air Canada in Halifax, said it's too early to speculate on what might have caused the incident.

She said the jet is only slightly damaged and will be hauled out of the field once the safety board gives the go-ahead.

She said there was no emergency evacuation. But in an unusual move, taxis had to be summoned to the end of the runway to ferry passengers back to the terminal.

"The mood on the plane was calm and controlled," Megann said.

Andy Scott, the newly elected Liberal MP for Fredericton, on Tuesday repeated his promise to have the runway extended at the Fredericton airport as soon as possible.

"The sooner the better," he said in an interview.

The extension of the runway was an election issue in the city, given past accidents and the inability of larger jets to land on the short strip.

Three years ago, a 50-seat Air Canada jet en route from Toronto crashed while trying to land in Fredericton in thick fog just before midnight.

The co-pilot, who was flying the CL-55, tried to abort the landing just 10 metres above the icy runway but the plane stalled. The twin-engine regional jet smacked the runway, then rammed into a large fir tree.

Of the 39 passengers and three crew members, nine were seriously injured and the rest received minor or no injuries.

At the time, the Fredericton airport had a flight-service station rather than an air traffic control tower. Controllers in Moncton, N.B., provided instrument flight assistance.

The Transportation Safety Board said in its report into the crash that weather conditions and Canada's less-stringent regulations for low-visibility approaches and landings caused the crash.

The safety board recommended more pilot training and heightened awareness of the risks of landing in poor weather.