A Nova Scotia law firm has filed a $12M class action lawsuit against Air Canada on behalf of passengers who were aboard Flight 624 that crash landed at the Halifax International Airport on March 29.
The lawsuit has been filed by MacGillivray Injury and Insurance Law on behalf of roughly 133 passengers who were aboard the flight that touched down 335 metres short of the runway.
“Through this claim and the TSB investigation our clients hope to be able to access information about what problems contributed to the crash,” said attorney Jamie MacGillivray in a statement. “Our clients believe based on the known facts that there was likely negligence on the part of the Defendants.”
The Transportation Safety Board is currently leading an investigation into the crash.
READ MORE: AC624 passenger video shows scene on tarmac minutes after crash landing
Also named in the lawsuit is Nav Canada, a privately run corporation that operates Canada’s civil air navigation system, the pilots of the flight and the Halifax International Airport Authority (HIAA).
The lawsuit alleges Nav Canada instructed the pilots of Flight 624 to land when it knew or should have known that conditions were unsafe. The suit also alleges Nav Canada failed to advise the flight crew that the plane’s speed, rate and angle of descent would result in Flight 624 crashing.
The lawsuit also alleges HIAA failed to properly monitor runway 05 on which Flight 624 crashed. The suit alleges airport authority failed to adequately inspect, test, and report runway surface
conditions, to keep the runway open when it knew or should have known it was not reasonably safe to do so, and choosing to operate a runway with an inadequate instrument landing
system.
Flight AC624 touched down 335 metres short of the runway at about 12:45 a.m. on Sunday, March 29. All 133 passengers and five crew on board the Airbus A320 survived the crash, although 25 people were sent to hospital.
None of the allegations provided in the lawsuit have been proven in court.
Passengers also criticized the airport about its response over the crash as some said they waited outside in the midst of a snowstorm for almost an hour before emergency responders arrived.
Earlier this month Air Canada sent each passenger a cheque for $5,000. A lawyer representing some passengers said the cheques would not negate any future claims by those who walked away from the crash.
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