High winds caused some trouble for an Air Canada flight at the Deer Lake Regional Airport on Monday.
Jamie Schwartz, CEO of the airport, said the Airbus 319 with about 100 passengers onboard was scheduled to depart for Toronto at 5:30 a.m.
Schwartz said the aircraft had begun to taxi out and was proceeding to turn around on the button of runway 2-5 when the pilot encountered high winds which prevented him from completing the turn.
“In the interest of safety he shut down the aircraft to assess the situation,” said Schwartz.
While the plane was across the runway, Schwartz said it was not in any danger or stuck in any way.
He said the pilot just wasn’t comfortable with turning it in the high-wind situation.
Eventually, the passengers were taken off the plane and transported back to the terminal by bus.
An Air Canada maintenance employee was then brought in to assess the situation and a decision was made to turn the aircraft and bring it back to the terminal building. That was done with help from airport maintenance.
After that, Schwartz said “they powered it up on its own and taxied it back to the terminal building.”
After spending the day at the airport the flight departed at 8:30 p.m.
