An Air Canada flight crash-landed in Halifax Saturday night during a snow storm, sending 23 people to hospital.
Air Canada flight 624 from Toronto to Halifax skidded off the runway at Halifax’s Stanfield International Airport around midnight, March 29. The airline said in a tweet shortly after 8 a.m. ET this morning that 18 people had been sent to hospital and later released. After conflicting reports with RCMP, Air Canada later confirmed 23 people had received treatment for various injuries.
According to the National Post, passengers reported that the Airbus A320, carrying 133 passengers and five crew, had hit a power line while making its landing, skidded on its belly for some time and came to a stop off of the runway. The airport’s power was also reportedly cut.
Air Canada has not released a description of the crash or the damage to the plane, but issued a statement from Klaus Goersch, Air Canada’s Executive Vice President & COO, saying:
“We at Air Canada are greatly relieved that no one was critically injured. Yet we fully appreciate this has been a very unsettling experience for our customers and their families, as well as our employees, and we are focused on caring for all those affected. We will also fully cooperate with the Transportation Safety Board as it begins an investigation to determine the cause.”
All but one passenger have been released from hospital.
I just lightened this one so its a little clearer. The evacuation of #ac624 #cbcns pic.twitter.com/o1gkibF2Ln
— Carolyn Ray (@carolynraycbc) March 29, 2015
Takeaway from #AC624 for me: look how well the fuselage (i.e., the important bit) held up in that crash. pic.twitter.com/53FThQKzsZ
— John Walton (@thatjohn) March 29, 2015
.@TSBCanada released pics of #AC624, which suffered a “hard landing” & runway excursion @ YHZ. Amazingly, no injuries pic.twitter.com/isvq9ArhKX
— Jason Rabinowitz (@AirlineFlyer) March 29, 2015