Plane with broken landing gear makes emergency landing at Halifax Airport
The incident involved Air Canada Flight 2259, which was operated by PAL Airlines. (Courtesy to Nikki Valentine)
In the third major aviation incident in a week, Air Canada Flight 2259, operated by PAL Airlines, made an emergency landing at Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ) on Saturday night after a landing gear malfunction.
The incident caused the plane to skid along the runway, sparking a fire.
Details of incident
The flight, which departed from St. John’s International Airport (YYT), encountered issues with its landing gear during descent.
At approximately 9:30 p.m. AST (1:30 a.m. GMT Sunday), the De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 aircraft, registered as C-GPNA, touched down unevenly, with one of its tires failing to deploy properly.
Passenger Nikki Valentine told CBC News that the plane tilted at a 20-degree angle to the left during landing.
“The plane started to sit at about a 20-degree angle to the left, and, as that happened, we heard a pretty loud sound—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,” she said.
“The plane shook quite a bit, and we started seeing a fire on the left side of the plane, and smoke started coming in the windows,” she added.
The people on board were evacuated and then taken to a hangar to be checked out by paramedics. “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 concluded.
The impact caused sparks and a fire near the wing. Emergency crews, including Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) teams, quickly extinguished the flames and ensured the safety of all passengers and crew.
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. “All passengers and crew on board have been disembarked and transported off the airfield. This evening, our airport was briefly closed, but one of our runways has been cleared to resume regular operations. We will provide further updates as necessary,” the statement added.
Temporary airport closure, flight disruptions
As a precaution, flights at Halifax Airport were temporarily suspended. Emergency services worked through the night, and one runway was reopened in the early hours of Sunday.
The affected aircraft, a Dash 8-400 turboprop, is widely used for short-haul flights. Investigators are now working to determine the cause of the landing gear failure and to assess whether mechanical or procedural factors contributed to the incident.
