Air Canada flight forced to land in Edmonton
Posted Nov 6, 2014 11:56 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Air Canada flight 8481 en route from Calgary to Grande Prairie ended with a bumpy landing at Edmonton International Airport.
Four people were taken to hospital, three with minor injuries, as well as one family member, after the plane had to make the unexpected landing at EIA.
It happened around 8:30 p.m. Thursday.
There were reports one of the plane’s tires blew out on takeoff out of Calgary.
Strong winds made it problematic for the flight to land at YYC so it carried on to Edmonton, where it experienced an unspecified problem upon landing.
The flight had 71 passengers and four crew members on board.
The incident forced the airport to activate its Emergency Operations Centre, prompting a number of emergency vehicles to attend the runway.
“The majority of the passengers decided to continue onto Grand Prairie,” Director of Communications for Edmonton International Airport Heather Hamilton told City News. “The airline provided a second airplane and that has taken most of the passengers onto Grand Prairie.”
Transportation Safety Board investigators are now on scene and have closed one runway, but airport officials say they’re still running at full capacity on the other runway.
