A Porter Airlines flight from Toronto that landed at the Halifax airport became “disabled” at the end of a runway when it “slid laterally and got stuck in the snow” on Wednesday night, officials say.
Porter Airlines Flight 209 arrived at Halifax Stanfield International Airport and “became disabled at the end of Runway 14/32 following landing,” the airport told Global News in a statement.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada said in a statement the aircraft landed without incident at 8:21 p.m. but as it was “exiting the runway onto the taxiway, the aircraft slid laterally and got stuck in the snow.”
Emergency crews responded to the plane for an assessment and determined that the aircraft could not make its way to the terminal on its own, airport officials said.
Videos submitted to Global News show crews attending the airplane and passengers being de-planed onto a snowy runway.
Porter Airlines said the plane — carrying 59 passengers and five crew members on board — had become disabled in snow off of the taxiway after landing due to weather conditions.
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A winter storm moved through the region on Wednesday where as much as 20 centimetres of snow was expected to fall.
There were no reports of injuries, the airline said.
The airport posted on its Facebook page at 11 p.m. that all passengers on board the plane were safely transported to the terminal building. The runway remains closed.
“To our knowledge, there we no diversions because of the brief closure of both runways last night, following the landing of Porter flight 209,” the airport said in its statement.
Porter Airlines said resources are en route to Halifax airport to tow the airplane to facilities on site for inspection and it’s expected to be moved by Thursday.
“An investigation will be undertaken to determine the circumstances associated with this incident,” Porter Airlines said.
The airport noted on Thursday morning that Runway 14/32 remains closed pending the aircraft’s removal by Porter Airlines. However, Runway 05/23 is open for scheduled flight operations.
“Due to yesterday’s winter storm and weather elsewhere, there are some ongoing delays and cancellations throughout the system,” the airport said on Facebook.
One passenger, Lloyd Banfield, told Global News he applauded the Porter crew and ground support during the incident.
“Given the situation, I thought that the Porter crew did an excellent and professional job of keeping the passengers informed,” Banfield said. “Passengers stayed calm, which was a testament to the crew’s handling of it. Speaking for myself, I didn’t feel unsafe at any time.”
“The Airport fire and ground support crews also did a great job getting us off the plane and bussed safely to the terminal,” he continued. “It took some time to get off the plane, but you have to respect safety protocols, so totally understandable. In my opinion, a very well executed event.”
A man who said he was on the aircraft estimates it took about two-and-a-half hours before passengers could safely exit the plane.
It was “a crazy night to say the least,” Samuel Gaboury told The Canadian Press in a text message.
— With files from Global News’ Angela Capobianco & The Canadian Press
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