HALIFAX – Halifax airport says 25 passengers who were on board an Air Canada jet were taken to hospital after a flight from Toronto skidded off a runway as it landed today.
The airline released a different figure for the number of injured passengers from the Airbus A320, saying 23 were taken to hospital for observation and treatment of minor injuries.
Air Canada says in statements there were 133 passengers and five crew members aboard flight AC624, which left Toronto just before 9 p.m. Saturday for a scheduled midnight landing at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.
The Halifax area was experiencing blizzard conditions Saturday night and into Sunday.
Air Canada could not be reached for comment.
Airport spokesman Peter Spurway says the aircraft touched down at about 12:35 a.m. in the stormy conditions and none of the injuries were considered life threatening.
“It came down pretty hard and then skidded off the runway,” said Spurway.
He said he didn’t know whether runway conditions played a role in the landing.
Power went off at the airport, which meant an emergency response centre had to be moved to a nearby hotel as a result, Spurway said.
Nova Scotia Power said on Twitter that it had restored power to the airport, but it did not indicate why electricity was lost.
The airport tweeted that it was closed to all flights.
The Capital District Health Authority in the Halifax area said it was treating 13 of the passengers for minor injuries at three of its hospitals.
Randy Hall and his wife Lianne Clark were on their way home from a Mexican vacation when they said the plane ran in to trouble as it was about to land.
“We just thought that we were landing hard. And when the … air bags started to deploy and you saw thing falling on the floor, we said, ‘Oh no. We’ve got to get out,’ ” said Clark, a computer consultant
“We just opened the doors when we landed and everyone started to pile out.”
Hall said he believe the jet hit a power line and landed hard on the runway. There were sparks but no fire, he said.
“We were just coming in to land and there was a big flash,” said Hall. “The plane came down, bang! It jumped up in the air again.”
The aircraft skidded for a long time before coming to a stop, said Hall, who is retired and lives in Mount Uniake, N.S.
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