A Halifax law firm says a proposed settlement of $18 million has been reached in a class action filed on behalf of passengers of Air Canada Flight 624, 10 years after the plane skidded along a Halifax runway and injured 25 people on board.
Wagners Law Firm and MacGillivray Law — both of Halifax — and Vancouver-based Camp Fiorante Matthews Mogerman LLP jointly represented the 133 passengers in one certified class action.
A 45-day trial on liability had been set to begin next month against Air Canada, NAV Canada, the Halifax International Airport Authority, Airbus and the Attorney General of Canada.
Wagners Law said this proposed settlement means the trial will not take place.
If approved by the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, the settlement will provide compensation to passengers and cover legal fees and expenses, and honoraria to the three representative plaintiffs.
“They were very lucky, of course, that it wasn’t more tragic than it was. People were injured, but nobody was killed,” said Ray Wagner, partner at Wagners Law.
“That’s been very traumatic for people to deal with (…) so carrying on for 10 years kind of exacerbates the trauma that they experienced. Now that we have a resolution, hopefully that will help the passengers to be able to put it behind them and move on, those people that have been troubled psychologically from the crash.”
Air Canada Flight 624 arrived at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport at around 12:30 a.m. on a snowy March 29, 2015. There were 133 passengers and five crew members on board.
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While attempting to land, the plane’s engines struck several power lines, then hit the ground about 225 metres before the runway threshold. It also struck an antenna array before the end of the runway, which broke off the main landing gear.
The plane’s nose and engine detached, and a wing was severely damaged.
Passengers exited the plane on the emergency slide and were left stranded on the runway during a blizzard before being transported into a hangar.
Twenty-five people were injured and had to be treated in hospital. The suit alleged that the remaining passengers spent 50 minutes on the tarmac outside before being transported to an indoor holding area.
A year later, one of the lead plaintiffs in the class action told Global News he believed the ordeal could have been avoided.
“I’m sure it was a tough decision for them whether to land or not but I think in this instance the right decision wasn’t made for the conditions,” said Asher Hodara, who said he hit his head twice during the crash landing and ended up with a concussion, in March 2016.
Other passengers told Global News in 2016 they were diagnosed with PTSD or were still trying to move on from the incident.
Wagner said the $18 million proposed settlement is a “reasonable settlement” and said it was a “hard-fought, mediated settlement” that took place over a couple of days.
He added that 10 years for a class action is “on the longer side.”
The litigation has included gaining access to the cockpit voice recorder, which reached the Supreme Court of Canada.
“There’s been many attempts over the years to try to bring this to a conclusion but there were many hurdles that we had to deal with,” he said, adding it’s rare for a class action to reach the Supreme Court of Canada.
Wagner said Air Canada will be paying the bulk of the settlement if the court approves it.
“We are satisfied the matter has been resolved,” the airline said in an emailed statement.
Defendants NAV Canada and the Halifax International Airport Authority will pay lesser amounts that will be disclosed in later court filings, Wagner said.
A spokesperson from the the airport authority said they are not commenting on the proposed settlement agreement or the matter in general because it remains before the court.
TSB report
The Transportation Safety Board found in its report, which was released in May 2017, that poor visibility and lighting led to the crash landing.
The report said crew members aboard the flight had set the autopilot at the correct angle of descent during the blizzard, but they didn’t notice wind had pushed the plane off its flight path.
Investigators also found Air Canada procedures did not require the flight crew to monitor the aircraft’s altitude and distance to the runway at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.
As well, the report noted the flight crew requested that runway lights be adjusted to their maximum setting, but the tower controller was preoccupied with snowplows on the runway and nearby aircraft on the taxiway.
The report concluded the pilots only realized the aircraft was too low and too far back after they disengaged from the autopilot in the last few seconds of the flight.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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