Air Canada, KLM flights narrowly avoid disaster after Jeju Airlines crash

Two more airliners narrowly avoided disaster after a Jeju Airlines plane burst into a deadly fireball during a failed belly landing in South Korea Saturday.

An Air Canada flight narrowly avoided disaster Saturday night when it landed at a Nova Scotia airport — but skidded down the runway and caught fire after a landing gear failure.

The terrifying incident happened at 9:30 p.m. and closed Halifax Stanfield International Airport for more than an hour-and-a-half.

Earlier, KLM Flight 1204 from Oslo, Norway to Amsterdam had to divert to Sandefjord, south of the Norwegian capital, after a loud noise was heard on board shortly after takeoff. During the emergency landing, the Boeing 737-800 — carrying 176 passengers — slid off the runway.

No one was injured in either incident.

Earlier on Saturday, 179 people died after Jeju Airlines Flight 2216 crashed at the airport in Muan, South Korea after a reported birdstrike. The Boeing 737-800 plane’s landing gear failed and it skidded into a concrete barrier and burst into the flames.

Only two survivors, both crew members, could be saved from the wreckage.

The Air Canada incident left passengers in shock.

“The plane started to sit at about a 20-degree angle to the left and, as that happened, we heard a pretty loud — what almost sounded like a crash sound — as the wing of the plane started to skid along the pavement, along with what I presume was the engine,” passenger Nikki Valentine told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

Then the de Havilland DHC-8-402 aircraft slid down the runway for a distance as pilots scrambled to regain control and bring the runaway turboprop to a halt, she said.

“The plane shook quite a bit, and we started seeing fire on the left side of the plane and smoke started coming in the windows,” she said, adding that one of the plane’s landing gear tires didn’t fully extend before the landing.

Shocking video taken by a passenger and posted on social media showed flames erupting from one of the engines as a loud grating sound filled the cabin — and scared flyers tried to comfort each other.

A spokesperson for Air Canada confirmed the nearly-catastrophic disaster happened after the plane experienced a “suspected landing issue” as it landed Saturday.

A rep for PAL Airlines, which operated the flight, declined to comment, the CBC said.

None of the 73 passengers or the flight crew was seriously injured, authorities said.

Valentine said the shaken flyers scrambled off the plane in about two minutes.

Related Topics:AirairlinesAvoidCanadacrashdisasterflightsJejuKLMnarrowly

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