Air Canada plane skids off runway; 25 hurt
March 30, 2015 11:09 am
An Air Canada jet touched down short of the runway at an airport in Halifax early Sunday, hitting an antenna, severing a power line and losing its landing gear before skidding to a stop.
The aircraft, an Airbus A320, touched down about 1,100 feet short of the runway, said Mike Cunningham, a regional manager of air investigations at the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. From there, it hit an antenna array that’s part of the airport’s landing system and severed a power line.
That caused “significant damage” to the plane and cut off power to Halifax Stanfield International Airport in Nova Scotia, he said.
The plane skidded for another 1,100 feet on its belly before coming to a stop. Investigators haven’t determined yet what caused the accident, Cunningham said.
The plane’s so-called black boxes are on their way to engineers for analysis, he said, and dozens more investigators are set to arrive at the crash site Monday.
(CNN)
