An incident involving an Air Canada aircraft caused a Canadian airport to temporarily shut down on Saturday night.

Halifax Stanfield International Airport shut down after an Air Canada flight from St. John’s caught on fire on the runway due to a “suspected landing gear issue.”

“Watch as Air Canada Flight 2259 made a dramatic landing at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport in Nova Scotia, Canada, Saturday night, after a broken landing gear caused the wing to scrape the runway, igniting a fire. The Halifax airport temporarily closed following the incident, which occurred as the plane arrived from St. John’s. The aircraft skidded down the runway, and part of it caught fire,” Rawsalerts wrote.

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“The plane started to sit at about a 20-degree angle to the left and, as that happened, we heard a pretty loud — what almost sounded like a crash sound — as the wing of the plane started to skid along the pavement, along with what I presume was the engine,” Nikki Valentine, a passenger on the flight, told CBC News.

“The plane shook quite a bit and we started seeing fire on the left side of the plane and smoke started coming in the windows,” she added.

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“Arriving from St. John’s (YYT), Air Canada (PAL Airlines) flight 2259 made an emergency Landing at Halifax Airport (YHZ) after it damaged main landing gear during descent on 28 December. During the landing roll, De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 plane’s wing scraped the runway and caught fire,” FL360aero noted.

“The incident caused the temporary closure of the airport while emergency responders were in action to ensure the safety of everyone onboard,” it added.

CBC News reports:

A statement issued by the airport said the incident involved Air Canada Flight 2259, which was operated by PAL Airlines. The incident happened around 9:30 p.m. AT.

The statement does not say how many people were on the plane.

The people on board were evacuated, and then taken to a hangar to be checked out by paramedics.

Valentine estimates the plane’s capacity was about 80 passengers, with about 20 rows of seats and a pair of seats on either side of the aisle.

She said it was mostly full and it took up to two minutes to get everyone off the plane.

“One side of the entire plane was on fire, so everyone was pretty much in a hurry to get off — but an organized hurry,” she said.

Daily Mail noted:

Air Canada spokesperson Peter Fitzpatrick said to the Toronto Star that the flight experienced a ‘suspected landing gear issue,’ but none of the 73 passengers were seriously harmed.

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A spokesperson from the Nova Scotia Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), which responded to the scene alongside paramedics, said minor injuries were reported.

One of the airport’s runways has been re-opened since the shocking landing. The incident is being investigated to determine what exactly went wrong.

 

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