Passenger Jet Skids Off Canada Runway on Landing, Slightly Injuring 23

The aircraft was arriving from Toronto at 12:35 a.m. Sunday morning when the mishap occurred, Air Canada said in a communique released on its Web site.

The Airbus A320, the same type of plane as the Germanwings jet that crashed in the French Alps last week, went off the runway during a heavy snowstorm with very low visibility, local media reported.

The company said that all the passengers and crew disembarked from the plane after the mishap and those found to have suffered injuries were taken to local hospitals for observation and to receive medical treatment.

Later, the airline said that 18 of the injured people had been released from the hospitals where they were treated.

The incident caused a power outage at the Halifax terminal and the airport was closed to all flights temporarily.

The plane “came down pretty hard and then skidded off the runway,” said airport spokesman Peter Spurway, adding that the cause of the accident was not yet known in remarks broadcast by Canadian public television CBC.

Photographs released by Canada’s Transportation Safety Board showed the plane’s nose torn off, its landing gear apparently collapsed and what appears to be an engine crumpled under a damaged wing.

Passenger Randy Hall said that the plane flew in circles over the airport for half an hour waiting for the best time to land and during the descent there was “a big flash.”

According to CBC, authorities are considering the hypothesis that the plane hit a power line or light pole, although that has not been officially confirmed. Fortunately, no fire resulted, possibly due to the snow on and around the runway.