The nose gear of a WestJet de Havilland Dash 8-400 collapsed while touching down at Terrace Northwest Regional Airport in British Columbia on Friday night. The aircraft was operating a service from Vancouver, BC when the incident happened.
What happened?
The Aviation Herald reports that aircraft registration C-FKWE was performing flight WS-3107 and landed at the airport’s runway 33 at 21:06 local time (February 1st 05:06 UTC). However, the plane’s nose gear collapsed before it came to complete stop while on the runway. Thereafter, the flight’s 42 passengers left the plane to be assisted to the airport’s terminal.
The aircraft was operated by WestJet Encore, which is the regional arm of the low-cost Canadian airline. It began operations in 2013 to help increase flight frequency by using smaller aircraft. Moreover, the subsidiary hoped to expand operations on routes with less traffic.
More on the aircraft
The airline chose Dash 8 aircraft to serve these underserved regions. It currently holds 47 of these planes, with the most recent model arriving in April 2018. The unit that got damaged in this week’s incident arrived in May 2014.
Turboprops such as these Dash 8s are often the preferred choice by regional operators that serve underserved airports. Their smaller stature and ability to land on smaller runways make it a smarter choice in many cases.
Additionally, not as many seats are needed for these operations. Therefore, large jets manufactured by the likes of Boeing and Airbus are not required.
Nonetheless, similar issues can still occur on any type of plane. Last month, a Nordwind Airlines Airbus A321 suffered significant damage when landing while landing in Antalya from Moscow. The aircraft’s nose gear punctured up through the cabin floor, frightening those onboard.
The strong winter weather may have had an impact on the landing of this WestJet flight. Last month, another Dash 8 suffered an accident on a runway due to harsh weather. An Ethiopian Airlines aircraft suffered a runway excursion at Juba International Airport due to wet conditions.
A word from WestJet
Simple Flying reached out to WestJet for comment on the incident. A spokesperson confirmed that emergency vehicles arrived on the scene but no injuries occurred during the event.
“[The aircraft had] a collapsed nose wheel upon landing in Terrace on Friday. Emergency vehicles attended to the aircraft on the taxiway. There are no injuries reported on the aircraft and all guests and crew have now been transported to the airport terminal,” A WestJet spokesperson said.
“WestJet 3108 from Terrace to Vancouver has been cancelled as a result of this incident. We apologize to our guests for the inconvenience caused by this incident and are working to remedy the situation as quickly as possible.”
The canceled return flight may have cause frustrations to several passengers. However, there was thankfully nobody was hurt during the unexpected incident.
What are your thoughts on what happened in Terrace, BC? Let us know what you think in the comment section.