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Passengers aboard a Porter Airlines flight spent an extra 2½ hours on the plane Wednesday night after it slid into the snow after landing at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.
The flight, which was travelling from Toronto, landed at 8:20 p.m. amid heavy snow conditions.
Samuel Gaboury was aboard the flight and said it landed fine, but started to slide on the runway.
“You could feel something was wrong because it was sliding. It really was sliding and tried to take a turn and the plane decided it wasn’t going, right? So, yeah, plane got off the runway or taxiway or whatever they want to call it. And yeah, we got stuck.”
Gaboury said a path to the plane had to be plowed, and crews tried unsuccessfully to tow it. An initial effort to bring boarding stairs to the plane to allow passengers to get off didn’t work because the stairs were “spinning out of control,” he said.
Eventually, crews were able to bring the stairs to the plane and passengers disembarked and boarded buses that took them to the terminal.
Gaboury said passengers didn’t seem too worried or scared, and as far as he knows, everyone was safe.
He said he was surprised the plane was allowed to land, given the weather conditions at the time.
“Visibility was zero, was really, really bad.… You could barely see like a feet in front of you. The snow was so bad and the wind was so bad,” Gaboury said. “I think it should have been delayed or cancelled, to be honest with you.”
Runway closed pending plane’s removal
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said in a statement the plane “slid laterally and got stuck in the snow” while it was exiting the runway onto the taxiway.
The agency said it is collecting and assessing information about what happened, and that there was no damage to the plane.
A statement from Porter Airlines said the plane “became disabled in snow off of the taxiway after landing due to weather conditions.”
None of the 59 passengers or five crew members were injured, Porter said.
After passengers waited for 2½ hours on the plane, buses arrived to transport them to the terminal. (Submitted by Samuel Gaboury)
In an update on Thursday evening, Halifax Stanfield International Airport announced the plane had been safely removed from the runway. It said both runways are now operational.
In its statement, Porter said an investigation will be undertaken “to determine the circumstances associated with this incident.”
Airport authority spokesperson Tiffany Chase said some flights have been delayed or cancelled due to the storm, and passengers are encouraged to check the status of their flight before leaving for the airport.
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