Passengers on a WestJet flight from Toronto to Ottawa on Tuesday morning experienced a scare when one of the tires on their plane burst shortly after taking off.
The blowout prompted the crew to initiate emergency protocols and prepare passengers for a bumpy landing, but the plane landed in Ottawa without incident.
The flight took off from Toronto’s Pearson International Airport at 6:39 a.m. and landed at the Ottawa International Airport at 8:06 a.m., according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
‘Bang’ after takeoff
Passenger Steve Wynne said he knew there was a problem when he heard a “bang” immediately after the plane took off from the runway.
“The plane is in the sky and then, when the wheel well closed up, it looked like a black strap hanging off a couple of feet, flapping in the wind,” said Wynne, who was returning to Ottawa after participating in a soccer tournament in Orlando, Fla.
“Then the passenger in front of me mentioned almost at the same time, ‘What the heck is that?’ So I said, ‘I think that’s the wheel. I think the wheel’s popped.”
The damaged wheel was located on the left side of the plane beneath the wing, Wynne said, and was one of two attached to the retractable chassis.
32 passengers uninjured
WestJet confirmed in a statement to CBC Ottawa that Flight 3446, operated by WestJet Encore, sustained “tire damage” but that it landed normally and all 32 passengers disembarked safely.
“Out of an abundance of caution, our pilots requested the presence of emergency vehicles prior to the aircraft arrival in Ottawa,” spokesperson Morgan Bell said. “The safety of our guests and crew are of utmost importance.”
Bell said the plane was unable to taxi to the gate so passengers were unloaded and taken by bus to the terminal.
The plane, a Bombardier Q-400 turboprop, was able to land safely because the damaged wheel was backed up by a second wheel.
“The Q400 is designed with two tires on each axle for redundancy,” Bell said. “This allows for increased reliability and additional safety barriers in an event of a tire failure like we experienced today.”
‘Thank God, we’re alive’
Wynne, the passenger, said that before the plane landed, the flight crew reviewed the crash routine and emergency procedures with passengers, and required them to bend down and keep their heads and arms down in front of them as the plane approached the runway.
“Everyone had their crash position,” said Wynne. “They just kept saying, ‘Bend over, head down,’ and they repeated that about 20 to 30 times.”
Once the plane landed, passengers breathed a sigh of relief, Wynne said.
“The stewardess at the end said, ‘Thank God, we’re alive,'” said Wynne. “We all were thinking that, too.”