What happened
On 4 March 2019, an Air Canada Boeing 767-300 was performing a scheduled flight from Toronto’s Lester B. Pearson International Airport to Halifax’s Stanfield International Airport. During the landing phase at Halifax, the aircraft encountered wind conditions that affected its path while traversing a slippery portion of the runway. This lateral movement caused the nose wheel to leave the paved surface and enter a ridge of accumulated snow located at the runway edge.
Following the excursion, the aircraft was unable to continue taxiing under its own power. All 211 passengers and 8 crew members were evacuated from the aircraft via bus to the airport terminal. There were no injuries reported among the occupants, and the aircraft sustained no structural damage during the event.
The investigation
The TSB conducted a Class 4 investigation into the incident. The investigation focused on the sequence of events during the landing rollout and the environmental conditions present on the runway surface at the time of the occurrence.