Air Canada A320 accident at Halifax

[js1964]

...no lives lost apparently. Hit electrical wires on landing?

Nothing on news yet, but twitter:

https://twitter.com/hashtag/AC624

https://twitter.com/AirCanada/status/582037344494174209

"Confirms AC624, YYZ-YHZ exited runway upon landing at Halifax. All passengers have deplaned, going to terminal. More updates to come."

[akerosid]

AC A320 accident at Halifax

An Air Canada A320, inbound from YYZ, apparently clipped power lines and "crash landed" at Halifax early this morning. Unconfirmed reports suggests the aircraft overran. Apparently sustained substantial damage.

CBC.ca News - CBC Nova Scotia

[tbaylx]

Rumors of hitting powerlines, runway excursion and significant airframe damage..i'd call that a crash

[training wheels]

Appears like the nosewheel collapsed?

Pic Source: Twitter

[Snowcat]

Air Canada flight leaves runway in Halifax, 23 sent to hospital - Nova Scotia - CBC News

[six7driver]

"leaves runway"..."exits runway"...pretty much looks like a CRASH to me. The Air Canada PR department and CBC are not understating, they are delusional

[airdogalpha]

Clipped wire on appoarch to 23

https://twitter.com/KSundahlCTV/stat...74965815611393

metar show cross wind 29- 54knots in the hour before and after incident

Notam:

[DOD PROCEDURAL NOTAM] INSTRUMENT APPROACH PROCEDURE CHANGED,
ILS OR NDB RUNWAY 23 (GNSS), ORIGINAL, 05MAR15.
CHANGE GLIDE PATH ANGLE FROM 2.70 DEGREES TO READ 3.00 DEGREES.
CHANGE THRESHOLD CROSSING HEIGHT FROM 57 TO READ 59.
05 MAR 13:33 2015 UNTIL 02 APR 05:00 2015. CREATED:
05 MAR 13:35 2015

[airdogalpha]

Another interesting Notam...

Cyhz csb2 awos temperature, dp, altimeter setting, precipitation, cloud hgt and cover unreliable. 28 mar 07:43 2015 until 03 apr 23:59 2015. Created: 28 mar 07:51 2015

[RAD_ALT_ALIVE]

Hmmm....sounds remarkably familiar, but I can't put my finger on it;

1. Legacy carrier with a local reputation for arrogance,
2. Overrun/crash (the 'c' word),
3. PR department refusing to acknowledge the 'c' word,

The only thing missing will be the spending of 10's of millions of dollars in fixing what appears to be a write-off.

[DaveReidUK]

Great quote:

"Spurway [spokesman for the Halifax Stanfield International Airport] said the incident was not a crash because it is believed the plane was under control as it came in. He said there's no indication what caused the hard landing and he did not know the condition of the plane."

Air Canada flight leaves runway in Halifax, 25 sent to hospital - Nova Scotia - CBC News

[N707ZS]

Hope that's not cable marks/burns on the fuselage.

[six7driver]

May well be. Passengers on board that were interviewed on TV have already said there was a large flash before landing with several saying they hit a power pole or cables before landing.

[N707ZS]

Google earth shows wooden power poles on each end of the runway.

[BoyFly]

CYHZ WX

SPECI CYHZ 290414Z 34024G33KT 3/4SM R14/P6000FT/U -SN DRSN BKN010
OVC018 M06/M07 A2965 RMK SF7SC1 SLP046=
CYHZ 290400Z 34019G54KT 3/4SM R14/5000VP6000FT/D -SN DRSN BKN007
OVC010 M06/M07 A2964 RMK SF7SC1 SLP045=
SPECI CYHZ 290313Z 35020G26KT 1/2SM R14/3500V4500FT/N SN DRSN VV003 M06/M07 A2963 RMK SN8 SLP040=
CYHZ 290300Z 34019G25KT 1/8SM R14/P6000VM0300FT/N +SN DRSN VV003 M06/M07 A2962 RMK SN8 /S09/ SLP038=


If CBC news is reporting correctly (That's a big if!) then the accident occurred at 03:35Z landing on runway 05 which is a LOC only approach. If Jetplan is accurate the METAR above shows a significant windshear near that time.


Glad nobody was seriously injured!

[jack11111]

Halifax crash

So if the aircraft took out the airport power, does that mean the runway lights went dark? How quickly can emergency generators power-up? Maybe not quick enough.
Landing with only aircraft landing lights. In blowing snow, at night.

[DaveReidUK]

More pics here, view of the trailing edge.

MLG gone, engines presumably in situ but half buried.

No hurry with the hard landing checks, then ...

[Mark in CA]

An 'abrupt' landing

Air Canada plane leaves Halifax runway on 'abrupt' landing

[tupungato]

Right wing torn off. Engine was somewhere else.

[firefish]

Either you crash or you land - there's no such thing as a crash landing. A landing implies control, in this case it appears that they had none.

If you're on an un-stabilized approach and you're so low that you hit power lines coming in and the only two obvious factors that allowed everyone to walk away is that 1. there happened to be a hard and flat surface in the aircrafts trajectory and 2. the slush and snow acted as a fire extinguisher, I'd say that this absolutely qualifies as a crash. Unless they had a major malfunction and this was the best they could do.

[Jet Jockey A4]

It will be interesting to hear if the pilot followed a "proper" slope to the RWY or ducked under or whether perhaps wind shear played a role.

Also of interest is whether they hit that pole or wire causing the electrical black out in the area.


And unlike what AC is calling it; "a runway excursion", I call this a crash.