Westjet off runway in YOW. No Injuries

[Longtimer]

Runway scare
WestJet flight from Calgary runs out of runway at Ottawa airport; no one injured
Jessey Bird, Ottawa Citizen
Published: 3 hours ago
Emergency crews rushed to the Ottawa Airport late Sunday night after a plane carrying 94 people, including crew, slid off the runway.

The drama began shortly after 11 p.m. as the Boeing 737 - WestJet flight 846 from Calgary - touched down on Runway 25 in Ottawa.

"We were just sitting on the plane, it was coming down, and the next thing you know we had slipped off," said 37-year-old Cindy Lafferty, who was on board the flight with her three young children. She and her family are in the process of moving to Ottawa.

"It was very scary," said Ms. Lafferty, in tears, as her family embraced her, arms full of balloons and flowers. "We just didn't know if it was going to stop."



This WestJet plane, flight WS846, sits in a snowbank after sliding off the end of the runway late Sunday night at the Ottawa International Airport.
"All I felt was a bump and then we slid," said her daughter, 12-year-old Jessica Lafferty, with a shrug. "I was pretty scared, but we ended up being fine."

Minutes after the slide, airport officials rushed to the scene and called Ottawa fire and paramedics for backup.

Despite the reassurance from officials that no one was hurt, the tension was high in the terminal, where people waited anxiously to greet their loved ones.

"My son called us from the plane and he said he was in the middle of the snow," said Jorge Rodriguez, as he waited outside for his son Dr. Sebastian Rodriguez. "We're just happy nobody was hurt."

The passengers were eventually delivered by bus to the terminal, almost two hours after landing.

Marielena Dibartolo was returning to Ottawa with her 10-month-old son, Liam King.

"I had him on my lap and was feeding him and all of a sudden we were banking to the left," she said. "It was pretty rough and all I saw was field. That's when I knew we definitely weren't on the runway."

Steve Singer, who was also on board with his family, said his 10-month old son Craig Singer didn't make a peep in all the commotion.

"The plane landed, the reverse thrusters came on...then after a couple of seconds we realized we weren't slowing down and there was all this snow flying up over the wings of the plane," said Mr. Singer.

"He was great," said Craig's mother, Sara Christian, with a laugh. "It was actually me who let out a big gasp."

Everyone from the staff to the passengers were very calm, said Dr. Rodriguez, 30, who is a surgical resident at the General Campus of the Ottawa Hospital. "It wasn't very turbulent, but all of a sudden we realized we were in the middle of a field," he said. "It was a bit of an inconvenience, but if you think about what could have happened ... I think I'm pretty lucky."

"This is certainly a very rare occurrence but our crew our trained for these type of incidents," said Richard Bartrem, vice-president of communications for the airline.

As of 2 a.m. Monday morning the cause of the slide had yet to be determined, but reports from the scene suggested the area surrounding the aircraft was extremely icy. Ottawa had been receiving freezing rain for several hours Sunday.

"Westjet will be cooperating with the Transportation Safety Board as they conduct their investigation into the matter," said Mr. Bartrem, adding that he did not know how long the investigation would take.

About four millimetres of mostly freezing rain fell on the Ottawa region Sunday, which also caused dangerous driving conditions.

Area police reported 28 accidents between noon and 8 p.m., and the OPP reported 96 for all of Eastern Ontario.
Members of the Russell County OPP responded to a two-vehicle collision that killed two of five occupants. The head-on collision occurred shortly after 4 p.m., on County Road 17 at Division Road, just west of the Village of Wendover.

Also, an eight-kilometre stretch of Highway 417 was closed for part of yesterday afternoon due to icy conditions, which caused many minor accidents, police said.

The highway was closed in both directions near Casselman from about 3 p.m. until 3:30 p.m., said OPP Const. Darin Kirker. There were "numerous vehicles in the ditch," he said.

According to Environment Canada, rain will end early this morning with the temperature hovering at 2C for most of the day.

[invertedattitude]

Anyone got the METAR at the time of the incident?

[. .]

Where's Valcore to the rescue with pictures of Air Canada accidents from 30 years ago?

[Valcore]

Completely off topic drivel edited by JC.

[sanjet]

Like always glad nobody got hurt. Here's the METARS from yesterday:
METAR CYOW 172300Z 09010KT 3SM -FZRA BR BKN005 OVC016 M01/M01 A2965 RMK SC7SC1 SLP047
SPECI CYOW 172323Z 11010KT 3SM -FZRA BR FEW005 OVC026 M00/ RMK SF2SC6
METAR CYOW 180000Z 12009KT 3SM -FZRA BR FEW005 OVC025 00/00 A2959 RMK SF2NS6 PRESFR SLP026
SPECI CYOW 180015Z 11010KT 3SM -RA BR FEW005 OVC012 00/ RMK SF2NS6
SPECI CYOW 180034Z 12007KT 3SM -RA BR OVC009 01/ REFZRA RMK NS8
METAR CYOW 180100Z CCA 11006KT 4SM -RA BR OVC010 01/01 A2956 REFZRA RMK NS8 SLP016
METAR CYOW 180200Z 14007KT 3SM -RA BR OVC011 02/02 A2953 RMK NS8 SLP006
SPECI CYOW 180233Z 11005KT 4SM -RA BR OVC009 01/ RMK NS8
SPECI CYOW 180254Z 11006KT 3SM BR OVC008 01/ RMK SF8
METAR CYOW 180300Z 11005KT 3SM BR OVC008 01/01 A2949 RMK SF8 SLP993
SPECI CYOW 180334Z 10006KT 2SM BR BKN011 OVC030 01/ RMK FG2SF4SC2
METAR CYOW 180400Z 13007KT 2SM BR SCT011 OVC030 01/01 A2945 RMK FG2SC2SC4 MOON VISBL SLP979
SPECI CYOW 180420Z 13008KT 4SM -RA BR FEW012 SCT030 OVC080 02/ RMK SF1SC2AS5
METAR CYOW 180500Z 11007KT 4SM -RA BR FEW012 SCT030 OVC070 02/02 A2941 RMK SF1SC2AS5 SLP967

[DA900]

Any word on what the CRFI was?

[sanjet]

CADORS #: 2008O0253
Occurrence Time 2200 Z
NAV CANADA staff at Montréal ACC reported that, due to extremely slippery conditions at Ottawa (M-CIA) (CYOW, four (4) aircraft diverted to other airports: ACA1221 diverted to Sudbury Municipal Airport (CYQB); EGF4097 diverted to Syracuse (Hancock International) Airport, NY (U.S.A.) (KSYR); ACA458 diverted to Montréal (PETIA) (CYUL); and ACA667 diverted to Toronto (LBPIA) (CYYZ). Ops. impact -- unknown.

CADORS #: 2008O0258
Occurrence Time: 0400 Z
The Westjet Airlines Inc. Boeing 737-76N aircraft (operating as flight WJA846) was concluding a scheduled IFR flight from Calgary International Airport (CYYC) to Ottawa (M-CIA) (CYOW). The aircraft reportedly landed long on runway 07 and ran off of the end of the runway an approximate distance of 100 feet in two (2) feet of snow. The aircraft appeared to be snow-bound with no observable damage. The passengers and crew were disembarked with no reported injuries. Runway 07/25 was NOTAMmed closed until the aircraft is removed (later in the morning). There was no reported damage to related navigation aids. The T.S.B. Duty Investigator was advised and are sending staff to the scene. NAV CANADA National Operations Centre advised. T.C. Ontario Region Duty Officer advised.

[bandit1]

Looks like the diversion prooved to be the better choice. Especially if you plan to land long.

Nice to see no injuries and minimal (if any) damage.

[Splatm]

Um, so which way was it landing? 07 or 25? My understanding was that it was coming down the LOC BC approach to 25.

[Hedley]

I was driving on the road west of CYOW
at that time, and it was damned icy. My
hat is off to any pilot who can land a large
aircraft on a runway which is covered with
clear ice and water. Practically zero friction.

[Tim Tam]

Does Westjet have particular company limits?

The CRFI charts are all fine and dandy, but they are advisory only, not restrictive.

[Hot Fuel]

Can't help but add to the speculation...The last report of FZRA was at 0000Z, incident occurred at 0400Z. The aircraft that elected to divert did so at 2200Z a full 6 hours ahead of the WestJet overrun. YOW is a pretty major Canadian airport, find it had to believe that no chemical, sand or equipment was used in the 4 hours after the last reported freezing precip event.

Anybody think this will be an increasing trend with a lot of carriers given the rapid upward movement of crews and the lowering of experience operating said equipment?

[Bullet]

Glad no one was hurt. had a touch of those conditions 2 weeks ago. not a nice feeling.

antiskid hammering, ac wincocking, the edge getting close, some hydroplaning ; earned our pay that day. Turned out ok but added to the gray.

[tripleseven]

I was driving on the road west of CYOW
at that time, and it was damned icy. My
hat is off to any pilot who can land a large
aircraft on a runway which is covered with
clear ice and water. Practically zero friction.

Sorry, but my hat goes off to the eight pilots who elected to make safe landings elsewhere.

[Doc]

777....BINGO

[Hot Fuel]

I agree, at 2200Z they would have been right in the middle of it, no doubt it was a skating rink. The other guys landed 4 hours after the last reported freezing precipitation. You would think the crew would have been aware of the friction index, which I'm sure was a lot higher on their arrival than it was when the others guys elected to divert.

[THEICEMAN]

ACA1221 diverted to Sudbury Municipal Airport (CYQB);

Who the heck wrote the Cadors?

Did Quebec & Sudbury swop airport codes overnight? or are the Navcanada guys sleeping again?

[Seven37]

This is 2 similar runway excursion incidents in a month for WJ. The other less publicized occurence was at YQT while turning around on RWY 25. Although completely different circumstances, TC will likely want a mini-audit to assuage their worries.

[invertedattitude]

IF the airplane landing long, IF being the word...

If it did, it would be yet another case of a crew not having the ability to commence a go-around once it appears an approach turned out to be less than desirable.

Obviously once on the ground braking with T/R you're comitted, but the pilots should have been able to recognize they were landing long before these events transpired.

Not unlike the following accidents in the last couple of years:

Air France in YYZ
Iberian in Quito
And more fatally
TAM

[linecrew]

ACA1221 diverted to Sudbury Municipal Airport (CYQB);

Who the heck wrote the Cadors?

Did Quebec & Sudbury swop airport codes overnight? or are the Navcanada guys sleeping again?

CADORS is done by TC, not NavCan.

[linecrew]

Um, so which way was it landing? 07 or 25? My understanding was that it was coming down the LOC BC approach to 25.

Landed on 07.

[alfie]

We have all been there,most times we get away with it after the mains touch!!! I guess they didn`t get the luck of the draw , it happens, thank God no injuries or damage other than one`s , you guessed it!!!Darn Ego!!!

[Axial Flow]

Do we actually know what the CRFI was at the time of the incident or are we basing it on the 6 hours prior when the other flights diverted ?

[THEICEMAN]

THEICEMAN wrote:
Quote:
ACA1221 diverted to Sudbury Municipal Airport (CYQB);


Who the heck wrote the Cadors?

Did Quebec & Sudbury swop airport codes overnight? or are the Navcanada guys sleeping again?


CADORS is done by TC, not NavCan.

ooopss, I knew that....

[carnie]

We landed in YOW about a half hour before WJ. I can vouch that the conditions were balls. When we were shutting down, the Capt feathered the props and the plane slid backwards. Quite the ice rink.