Air Canada Flight Makes Emergency Landing Due to Landing Gear Issue

On December 28th, an Air Canada flight flying from St. John's to Halifax made an emergency landing at its destination due to issues with the landing gear.

As the flight touched down at Halifax, the left landing gear failed, causing the entire aircraft to tilt left, with the wing scraping along the runway as the aircraft came to a halt. No serious injuries were reported and everyone on board safely disembarked the tilted plane.

Flight Details

Air Canada Flight 2259 (AC 2259) was a scheduled flight from St. John's International Airport (YYT) in Canada to Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ) in Canada. The flight, marketed under the Air Canada Express brand, was operated by PAL Airlines, a regional airline in Canada.

On December 28th, the flight was operated by a De Havilland Canada Dash 8-400 registered as C-GPNA.

The flight departed St. John's at 8:06 PM local time (NT) with 73 passengers on board. After an uneventful flight that lasted 98 minutes, the turboprop jet attempted to land at Halifax around 9:14 PM local time (AST).

According to initial reports, this is when the flight crew noticed issues with the landing gear, as the left main gear failed on landing. Currently it is not known whether the landing gear failed to deploy before landing, or if the gear simply collapsed as the aircraft touched down. The Q400 skid down the runway with its left wing scraping the ground, as sparks and smoke were visible to the passengers through the windows.

Video shows that there was also a fire on the left wing, however it was promptly extinguished, either due to the weather or firefighting efforts.

Passenger Nikki Valentine shared ontothe news, "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." 

The Aftermath

All 73 passengers are reportedly unharmed despite the frightening visuals of the "emergency landing".

Air Canada stated to the press that the flight "experienced a suspected landing gear issue after arrival at Stanfield International Airport. As a result, the aircraft was unable to reach the terminal and customers were offloaded using a bus". The airline further stated that "There were no injuries reported, however we appreciate this incident was unsettling for customers and we remain available to assist them."

According to officials, the cause of the incident is under investigation by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB).

Air Canada further shared, “At this time, we are waiting for the TSB to release the aircraft so we can return to customers their belongings.”

Tiffany Chase, the spokesperson for Halifax Airport announced that "Four flights were diverted and there were a handful of cancellations and delays while the airfield was closed. The incident will be investigated by the Transportation Safety Board of Canada, which in a notice Sunday said it was deploying a team of investigators to the airport. They are expected to arrive later Sunday."

The incident comes after a KLM flight in Oslo, Norway that skidded off the runway after diverting due to a hydraulic issue, and the crash landing of Jeju Air Flight 2216 in Muan, South Korea which became the most deadly civil aviation crash in South Korean history.

After this Air Canada flight incident, a Jeju Air flight diverted today due to a landing gear issue.

At the time of writing, C-GPNA, the Q400 involved, is still stationary on the runway.