Halifax crash wreckage removed from runway
Digital Reporter
Wednesday, April 1, 2015, 12:20 PM - The wreckage of the plane that crashed landed at Halifax's Stanfield Airport early Sunday morning has been removed from its resting place on the runway.
Airport spokeswoman Ashley Gallant says the plane was removed from the tarmac overnight, allowing the airport to assess the runway's suitability for re-use, according to the Canadian Press.
Air Canada flight AC624, an Airbus A320 carrying 133 passengers and five crew, touched down 335 m short of the runway at around 12:40 a.m. Sunday night, briefly becoming airborne again until coming to rest 335 m onto the runway. It damaged an antenna array along the way.
Some 25 people were taken to hospital, although none had critical injuries.
Image: Transportation and Safety Board/RCMP
The incident cut power to the site, which was restored a little before 2 a.m. Sunday.
The airport authority says two of its three backup generators, specifically devoted to powering the terminal building, came on briefly, but soon shut down.
"These two generators work in tandem. They also came on and provided power to the ATB, but only for a short period of time before shutting down. We are investigating what caused the unexpected shut-down," Joyce Carter, president of the Halifax International Airport Authority, said in a statement Tuesday.
Image: Transportation and Safety Board
Many of the passengers, who exited the plane via emergency chute, were not dressed for the weather, with below-zero temperatures, light snowfall and winds gusting up to 100 km/h.
Although fire trucks arrived quickly, it was 50 minutes before the passengers could be transferred to the terminal. The most at-risk passengers were kept in the fire truck cabs, while others were sheltered by tarps.
Airport authority spokesman Peter Spurway told the CBC the delay was because it was too dangerous to let the passengers walk across the runway, and there were no buses available at that time.
The wreckage is now in the possession of the Transportation and Safety Board, which said the approach-and-landing incident was of a kind that was on the agency's watchlist.
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