Halifax Airport Flights Resume After Aircraft Incident; Delays May Occur Due to Weather, Closed Runway

An Air Canada Express flight operated by Pal Airlines skidded off the runway Saturday night after catching fire at Halifax Stanfield International Airport in Halifax, Nova Scotia, on Dec. 29, 2024. Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press via AP

Flights have resumed at Halifax Stanfield International Airport following an aircraft landing incident on Saturday night, Dec. 28, though some closed runways may cause delays, the airport said.

The incident occurred around 9:30 p.m., when Air Canada Express Flight 2259, operated by PAL Airlines, experienced a “suspected landing gear issue” upon arrival from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, an Air Canada spokesperson told The Epoch Times on Dec. 29.

“The cause is unknown at this time and, as normally occurs with transport incidents, the TSB [Transportation Safety Board] will be investigating,” the spokesperson said, adding that both PAL and Air Canada will be supporting the TSB’s investigation.

Videos, appearing to be taken from inside the airplane and now circulating online, show that the landing gear issue caused the plane to tilt to the left, sparking a fire as the wing scraped along the runway.

The flight was carrying 73 customers, and no injuries were reported, Air Canada said. The spokesperson said the airline is waiting for the TSB to release the aircraft so that it can return the customers’ belongings to them.

The incident prompted the Halifax airport to temporarily close its airfield. Flights had resumed by 10 a.m. the next day, the airport said in a Dec. 29 post on social media platform X. It noted, however, that weather conditions could still lead to delays, as one of the airport’s two runways remained closed.

“We encourage travellers to check their flight status directly with their airline or on our website before leaving for the airport,” the airport said in a separate post on Dec. 29.

Fatal Incidents

The Dec. 28 Halifax incident was followed by a deadly plane crash in South Korea the next day, where the aircraft caught fire after a failed landing at the Muan International Airport. A total of 179 people died, according to the country’s fire agency.

That death toll is an update of the information provided by the country’s transport ministry in an earlier post on X, which said that of the 181 people on board—175 passengers and 6 crew members—the confirmed casualties were 177 dead, 2 injured, and 2 missing. The transport ministry also noted that the aircraft was completely burned down and that two cabin crew members were rescued and taken to hospital.

The crash occurred just after 9 a.m. local time.

Investigators said the landing gear of the Boeing 737-800 jet malfunctioned and failed to deploy during a second landing attempt, forcing the pilots to perform a belly landing near the end of the runway. However, the plane couldn’t slow down, overshot the runway, and crashed into a fence at the airport’s perimeter before exploding.

Investigating authorities are considering a bird collision as the cause of the malfunction.

Jeju Air flight 7C2216 was returning from Bangkok, Thailand, to Muan International Airport in Muan County, South Jeolla Province, in southwest South Korea, about 300 kilometres south of the capital city Seoul. The passengers included two Thai nationals, according to the South Korean transport ministry’s post. The rest are believed to be South Koreans.

Another fatal incident occurred earlier in the week, on Dec. 25, involving an Azerbaijani airliner that crash-landed in Kazakhstan. Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev said on Dec. 29 that the aircraft was unintentionally shot down by Russia. The crash killed 38 of the 67 people on board.

Melanie Sun contributed to this report.