Another Ground incident at Pearson Airport
 

Two planes clipped wing & tail. Sunwing tail caught fire. A Westjet aircraft evacuated via slides. No injuries reported. Toronto Pearson Fire on scene.

WestJet comments:
https://twitter.com/westjet/status/949440573642977280

...its Sunwing again...nuthin to see here move on...

Globe and Mail transport reporter points out it’s not the best time to go sliding when you are probably still in holiday clothes and looking to change in the terminal - would have been maybe -16C at the time?

It's Sunwing's fault that someone towed their empty (no crew) plane into another plane ?

Plane evacuated after Toronto airport collision - BBC News

SLF Video - Evacuate Announced at 0:24
 

Planes collide on Toronto airport tarmac, no injuries - Toronto - CBC News

Looks like the Sunwing APU area caught fire while the WJ winglet (and possible fuel vent) was making out like a marshmallow on a stick:eek:

From the CBC story, there are yet more reports of passengers trying to retrieve their carry-on items during an evacuation. I'm sorry folks. I know there are few practical ways to prevent unhelpful passenger behaviour. But stories like this infuriate me.

Transport Canada and airlines really need to do a better job emphasizing and enforcing fundamental standards of passenger behaviour. I think it's time for the public to wake up and recognize that everyone on board an airplane has responsibilities---including passengers.

If it were up to me, everyone witnessed trying to retrieve their bags during an evacuation would be charged under section 7.41(1)(c) of the Aeronautics Act:

Excerpt from CBC News:

'It was chaos'

When the planes struck, amusement turned to panic on board WestJet's Boeing 737-800, according to passenger Gustavo Lobo.

"Out of nowhere there was an audible crunch and the plane rocked slightly," Lobo told CBC News. "We looked out the window and saw that the plane had backed up into us. Everyone was a little shocked and kind of chuckling at the situation."

They didn't laugh for long, he said.

"Panic set in when [we saw] what seemed to be fuel spewing from the crash. After a couple of seconds the entire thing ignited and it was chaos inside the plane. People screaming and panicking all while the flight attendants shouted to try and control the situation."

Lobo took a video of the fire, and said eventually everybody slid down the emergency slides to safety, though the process was slowed by passengers who insisted on taking their carry-on luggage with them.

Ali Alagheband, also on the flight with his wife and 12-year-old son, said a "big ball of fire" lit up the right-side windows just seconds after the plane rattled with the force of the collision.

"Everybody was saying the F-word and screaming," Alagheband said, adding that he mostly stayed calm until black smoke seeped into cabin.

"The flight attendants kept saying 'remain seated, remain seated,'" he recalled. Fearing they'd soon be gasping for air and stuck on the plane, he told his son to stay calm and wear an oxygen mask if they fell from the cabin's ceiling.

"There was fire and there was fuel in that wing," he said. A mechanical engineer by trade, he could tell "it wasn't a good situation."

Nobody knew an evacuation was underway until a passenger stood on his seat and yelled that a door had opened, he said.

But as the crowd moved toward the door, some passengers blocked his family's escape.

"I was yelling at people reaching overhead to get their bags. It was ridiculous," he said. "I was literally yelling, 'Get the F off the plane."

Those overheads should be locked on landing. Pax should be given ample warning this will happen and if there is any small emergency item they may need they should keep it on their person. So passports, credit cards, keys, medication, phones, can all fit in a pocket. The rest can’t be used to risk lives. Once Pax are aware of this rule they can’t legitimately complain. If they don’t like it, take the bus.

Good call from the crew for an evacuation.

And probably an easy call with visible flames. This is what we train for, I agree, good job. :ok:

Pineapple frenzy...I completely agree with you.

But every time this happens, no authorities ever do anything at all about it even though they always have extensive videos outside the plane showing exactly who the culprits are.

Then there are lengthy "discussions" on the board saying oh well you can't legislate common sense etc. (as though what they are doing is mildly annoying and just violating a teeny little "law" instead of putting people's lives in direct danger.)

I doubt this incident will change things, though I wish it could. If the federal authorities in the respective country arrested and tried them and they did some time with a huge fine for breaking all the aviation laws, it would focus people's minds very quickly. But it is never treated like the serious crime it is.

I was on a chute situation many, many years ago in the Midwest. When the crew said evacuate we did.

No delays, no retrieving our stuff --nothing. Just one guy who was seated away from his friend kept holding up the line near the front standing in the aisle looking back down the plane behind him for his friend, like he was at a night club.

He was lifted roughly by two pax who came up and didn't even pause as they tossed him aside and he ended up arse-up in the window seat. He recovered quickly and got his tail out into the aisle and down the chute.

I don't advocate rough justice but we had smoke and a wing that was just about to erupt and sparks were flying. So 2 male pax "solved" the problem with him in an instant. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

I suggested to a friend who is a captain that when on take off or approach there should be a locking mechanism on all the overheads and it is engaged when the landing seatbelt sign goes on and it's last call for landing. Then the only way it gets disengaged is manually by the crew after arriving safely at the gate. And also locked at push back until the seat belt light goes off on cruise.

But of course he said too expensive to solve the problem--it will take people dying when trapped by these morons before anybody cares. And even then I'm not sure they'd put teeth in the laws and prosecute.

It just seems to be a problem that has been allowed to go on forever and nobody seems to care.

People also don't realize that when they hold up the evacuation they also are putting cabin crews in danger! They are responsible for getting everybody out and a delay somebody causes could mean their deaths as the last trying to evacuate.

Hard to tell....do I hear engines spool down five seconds after the Evacuate call?

Meanwhile in US

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DS2-PWqU0AYSmnH.jpg

A China Southern 77W and Kuwait Airways 77W have collided on the ground at JFK.

Something winding down there...

But the flames were on the other aircraft and letting people loose on the tarmac doesn’t sound like a good plan to me. Especially with all the emergency vehicules driving around in the dark. Remember the woman killed by a fire truck in San Francisco?

ATC audio recording here: .

It seems like it took the ground controller a mental tick or two to realize what was happening, continuing to clear aircraft to taxi and standby to the problem aircraft after the mayday/evauate call. Possibly it is multiple ground frequencies on the same recording.

IF the Sunwing aircraft was towed into a correctly 'parked' stationary aircraft, then, yes it is. It's their fault whether it was a Sunwing employee doing the towing, or a 3rd party doing so under contract from Sunwing. The rules are such that you may outsource the work, but never the responsibility.

Who initiated the evacuation?
 

No apparent injuries among the passengers, But was it such a good idea to Evacuate 160+ people in the dark from an aircraft that was not on fire ?

There have been previous incidents where people have been struck and killed by Emergency Vehicles.

Did the Crew initiate the evacuation, or did a passenger panic when they saw flames coming from the Other Aircraft, and someone opened an Emergency Exit, everyone else followed ?


I have now Listened to the Audio of Post #8, 5 or 6 times, since I first posted yesterday.
At 0:00 seconds a male voice says "It's not our plane on fire."
At 0:12 seconds the PA chime is heard.
At 0:21 seconds the Captain comes on the PA "Captain, Captain, EVACUATE"

To be fair, you look out the window and see fire. It’s unclear if you’re going to be able to move away from the burning APU any time soon, you don’t even know it’s just the APU burning and your wing tank is full of fuel....