Air Canada says 146 passengers on a flight from Vancouver to Winnipeg will arrive at their destination about six hours late, after their aircraft made an emergency landing in Regina on Thursday.
“It looked like we were making a turn, everything else seemed relatively smooth and then I noticed the in-flight staff started heading to the back of the plane,” passenger Greg Draguzet said. “It seemed pretty nonchalant and then the pilot came on and said there seemed to be a smell coming from the kitchen so they were going to make an emergency landing.”
The airline says reports of smoke coming from a galley oven on Flight AC290 prompted the crew to divert “to the nearest airport as a precaution … As per our standard operating procedures.”
“The flight landed and it was able to taxi on its own power to the terminal building with emergency responders here on site in anticipation of the arrival and the passengers safely disembarked,” President and CEO of Regina Airport Authority, James Bogusz said. “Aircraft emergencies do get declared from time to time, but when there are passengers on board like there was today, we take extra precaution by making sure our teams are activated.”
According to Air Canada, a new plane and crew were being dispatched to Regina to complete the flight.
“For us, it’s not much of an inconvenience,” Draguzet said “But it’s really unfortunate for some of these Winnipeg Jets fans who are trying to get to the game tonight and they are definitely livid trying to find an alternate route to Winnipeg.”